Pfizer pipeline down to 500 compounds as 100 are cut

Pfizer has unveiled its new pipeline for the first time since its acquisition of Wyeth in October and it reveals that 100 projects have been cut.

This still leaves some 500 clinical programmes, ranging from discovery through registration. Of those, 70% are focused on the company’s six ‘invest to win’ priority research areas – oncology, pain, inflammation, Alzheimer’s disease, psychoses and diabetes.

Specifically, 30 compounds are in development for various oncology indications, including PF-02341066, a c-MET-ALK inhibitor for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and bosutinib, for chronic myelogenous leukaemia, both of which are in Phase III. There are 10 compounds for Alzheimer’s, including Dimebon (latrepirdine) and bapineuzumab, being developed with Medivation and Johnson & Johnson, respectively, both of which are in Phase III.

Eight drugs are in development for pain, notably tanezumab, and 11 for inflammation, including tasocitinib, Pfizer's late-stage JAK-3 inhibitor for rheumatoid arthritis. It also has six vaccines and 27 biologics in the pipeline. Overall, the combined company has 34 new molecular entities and new indications in Phase III.

The New York-based drugs giant also announced that it has withdrawn its supplemental New Drug Application from the US Food and Drug Administration for Lyrica (pregabalin) to be considered as an adjunctive treatment of generalised anxiety disorder.