Pfizer Mitigates Tanezumab Risk with Potential US$1.8 B Deal with Eli Lilly

Three years after development of the entire class of nerve growth factor (NGF) inhibitors was put on clinical hold by the US FDA over serious safety concerns related to joint destruction, Pfizer has decided to continue Phase III development of its anti-NGF antibody tanezumab in collaboration with Eli Lilly as part of a deal potentially worth up to US$1.8 B. In March 2012, an FDA advisory committee agreed that NGF inhibitors could be studied in certain patient populations. Pfizer hopes to resume studies of the drug in osteoarthritis, chronic low back pain and cancer pain after submitting nonclinical data to the FDA in the first half of 2014.