Pfizer says obesity, melanoma drugs hold great promise
05-Dec-06
PHARMACEUTICAL company Pfizer has said that two of its experimental obesity drugs significantly reduced body weight at magnitudes comparable to Sanofi-Aventis' potent drug, Acomplia.
Pfizer officials told analysts at a meeting in Groton, Connecticut that patients taking two different doses of one medicine called CP-945,598 lost fourper cent to fiveper cent of their body weight compared with patients given placebos in mid-stage trials.
Another obesity drug, which worked through a different mechanism called MTP inhibition, produced an average weight loss of sixper cent, company officials said.
Pfizer said the weight losses for both of its obesity drugs were comparable with those seen with Acomplia, which has been approved in Europe and is awaiting approval in the United States.
CP-945,598 works through the same mechanism as Acomplia.
The company said it planned to begin 10 late-stage trials of cancer drugs through 2008.
One medicine called CP-675,206 had the potential to become the new ``standard of care'' for melanoma, Pfizer said, with overall survival of patients in early-stage trials of 16.5 months compared with six to nine months for those taking standard treatments.
Pfizer also expressed high hopes for another cancer drug, axitinib.
It said thyroid tumours shrank in 20per cent of test patients given the medicine for four months.
The drug, if approved, had potential to be used alongside Sutent, a Pfizer drug recently approved for kidney cancer, the company said. Reuters
Obesity Drugs Hold Promise
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