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Pfizer Stops Trials of Promising Heart Drug

December 4, 2006
Doctors hoping they would soon be able to prescribe a promising new heart drug for their patients have received a shock.

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has suddenly suspended trials for torcetrapib, which many cadiologists believed to be a major tool to prevent heart attacks and strokes.

Pfizer issued a statement Saturday saying it would stop clinical trials immediately. Why? Call it the Vioxx example.

Pfizer said interim results of clinical trials involving 15,000 patients uncovered a significant side effect. The results show that patients taking torcetrapib in combination with Lipitor were more likely to die or have heart problems than those taking Lipitor alone.

Merck, which pulled Vioxx from the market in September 2004, faces thousands of law suits charging it knew long before that time that the drug increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes in patients taking it.

Torcetrapib is designed to be taken in combination with other cardiovascular drugs, such as Lipitor and Zocor. Its most promising feature, doctors say, was its ability to raise good cholesterol levels.

Prior to thes announcement, some concerns had surfaced about torcetrapib.

Some cardiologists had sounded the alarm, noting that it appeared to raise blood pressure in many of the patients taking it. However, Pfizer brushed off the concerns, confidently predicting that clinical trials would prove those concerns to be unfounded.

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