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

 
• By Jessica Merrill

The nerve growth factor inhibitor for osteoarthritis pain is one of the last still in development after safety largely sidetracked the class of drugs.

closed book
Pfizer and Lilly closed the book on tanezumab • Source: Alamy

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...

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