When it comes to shopping around for new drugs from biotech partners, Pfizer is a bit like a naive used car buyer. It seems to pay a lot of attention to the gloss on the surface, and not enough to whether the engine inside will work.
How else can you explain the company shelling out $225 million on the Alzheimer’s drug Dimebon from Medivation? In its first big trial last week, the drug showed no effect whatsoever on Alzheimer’s symptoms. The result is so bad it raises serious questions about what Pfizer was thinking when it licensed the drug two years ago.
From a chemistry perspective, the old antihistamine was never anything special, University of Southern California Alzheimer’s expert Lon Schneider has pointed out. But Pfizer (apparently) got excited based on one smallish trial with promising results conducted entirely in Russia. There also was a lot of buzz about the drug doing something special to mitochrondria. In fact, the mechanism of the drug was always murky.
Over the years, Pfizer has bought enough biochemical duds to fill an entire junkyard. Here is a list of some of Pfizer’s past lemons:
Exubera
Pfizer spent billions and many years and testing this version of inhaled insulin, even as after the gadget got ever more clunky and the drug was linked to signs of decreased lung function. It finally pulled the plug in 2007.
Macugen
Pfizer licensed this drug for macular degeneration for $300 million, but it has been a commercial flop.
Esperion Therapeutics
In 2003, Pfizer paid $1.3 billion for this company testing a protein “Roto-Rooter” for clogged arteries. After the deal, hardly a peep was heard about the product again. In December, Pfizer sold the protein product for $10 million to the Medicines Company. (Pfizer will get more if the new owner revives the drug.)
Indiplon
Pfizer licensed this sleeping pill from Neurocrine Bioscience in 2002 for $200 million—then dumped it in 2006 when the Food and Drug Administration turned it down.
Vicuron Pharmaceuticals
In 2005, Pfizer snared this company for $1.9 billion to gain access to its new antibiotic and new antifungal. The antibiotic has yet to be approved, while the antifungal’s sales were just $18 million last year, according to Bernstein Research.
