Pfizer/Lilly Discontinue Tanezumab, The Likely End For A Class Dogged By Safety

The 15-year development road for a once high-profile drug – Pfizer Inc. and Eli Lilly and Company's nerve growth factor inhibitor tanezumab – came to a quiet end. Lilly disclosed in its third quarter sales and earnings call on 26 October that the partners had discontinued development of tanezumab for osteoarthritis pain after receiving a complete response letter from the US Food and Drug Administration and a negative opinion by the European Medicine Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use.

The news spells the likely end for the class of drugs, which has shown promise as a novel approach to treating pain but has also been associated with serious safety risks. Tanezumab is one of the last of the NGF inhibitors still in development after other rivals dropped out of the development space. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. also have fasinumab, which has demonstrated efficacy in Phase III but the companies have not committed to filing