Posted: 02/09/2007--25/11/2008 || Rate this Article: 3 || Views|| Sign In || Register ||Hello Guest
Torcetrapib was poised to be the next blockbuster drug for Pfizer, until a 15,000 patient study revealed that the drug increased death rates. 900 million dollars later, Pfizer had to discontinue production. We all know what the problem was, but what actually went wrong?
Torcetrapib looked like a winner on paper, it lowered bad cholesterol or LDL 20% and raised good cholesterol or HDL 50%. Although there were some good effects from torcetrapib, it ended up having to many adverse affects to give to the public. According to Forbes.com, recent studies unveiled at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) showed that the drug did not clear out the patients coronary or neck arteries as intended.
Forbes.com also reported, Cleveland Clinic cardiologist and ACC head Steven Nissen, who conducted one of the ultrasound studies, says there are three possible explanations of how torcetrapib went awry. One is that torcetrapib produced HDL that did not work properly. Another is that the blood pressure side effect made the drug toxic. Experts who still hold out hope for such medicines are betting on a third possibility. The drug might have caused some nasty damage to blood vessel walls, and the increased blood pressure was just a consequence of this more severe damage. The drug "was obviously toxic. It may be doing something bad to blood vessels, and the blood pressure is just a manifestation, Nissen said.
Although these are legitimate claims to what went wrong with torcetrapib, the most significant evidence will come from the release of the study results that led to the dismissal of torcetrapib. Expect to see the study results surface sometime early next fall.
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