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LipitorCare
News » November 06
Experimental Cholesterol Medication also Raises
Blood Pressure
1 Nov. 2006
Pfizer announced Tuesday that its experimental drug for lowering cholesterol
has an unfortunate side effect: it also raises blood pressure.
The medication, torcetrapib, is undergoing late-phase clinical trials
in combination with the company's wildly successful statin, Lipitor. The
early results of the trials show that torcetrapib and Lipitor lower "bad"
LDL cholesterol by 27 percent and raise "good" HDL cholesterol
by 56 percent when taken together, according to Dr. Joseph Feczco, Pfizer's
chief medical officer.
However, Pfizer also reported that patients' systolic blood pressure increased
by an average of three to four millimeters of mercury when taking both
medicines. While mid-phase clinical trials for torcetrapib already showed
a rise in blood pressure of two to three millimeters, the one millimeter
increase in blood pressure from the last phase of trials has investors
worried.
"The problem for investors is that that's one millimeter in the wrong
direction," says Kevin Scotcher, an analyst at HSBC. "My view
is that this drug isn't going to be launched until 2010."
Sales of the drug Lipitor have
pulled in more than $12 billion a year for Pfizer, but the prospects of
generic competition when it loses its patent protection in 2010 will likely
leave company hurting. Expectations were high that torcetrapib could be
the company's next big blockbuster in the face of generic competition,
and the company has spent more than $800 million on clinical testing for
the drug.
While the early results for late-phase clinical trials included less than
25 percent of the total number of patients involved in the trial, the
fact that the medicine causes any sort of problem with blood pressure-a
major drawback for patients already at risk for heart disease-is discouraging.
Analysts from Bernstein Research, for example, say that "regardless
of the magnitude, the presence of blood pressure elevation makes torcetrapib
commercially non-viable."
But Mr. Scotcher feels that both analysts and Pfizer held unrealistic
expectations of the drug from the start. Because statins like Lipitor
are already so effective at lowering cholesterol, he says the combination
of a statin with torcetrapib as an alternative to treat high cholesterol
is "redundant." Instead, torcetrapib may be used for people
whose high cholesterol is unresponsive to traditional treatment with statins.
"This will become a second- or third-line therapy for patients who
are not well-controlled on statin therapy. What's happening with Pfizer
on this statement is that their view of this drug is changing," Mr.
Scotcher said.
Source: http://www.redherring.com
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