Link: End of Drug Trial Is a Big Loss for Pfizer - New York Times.
The abrupt decision to discontinue torcetrapib was a shocking disappointment for Pfizer and for people who suffer from heart disease. The drug, which has been in development since the early 1990s, raises so-called good cholesterol, and cardiologists had hoped it would reduce the buildup of plaques in blood vessels that can cause heart attacks.
Oh my god. Can we please stop mourning for "poor Pfizer" and the "poor heart patients that will not benefit from their sure-to-be-wonderful drug"? Now I suppose I should be grateful that nobody decided to be inappropriate about this, cover up the bad news and go to market anyway; but for goodness' sake, Pfizer will recover from this...I'm just sure of it.
Why is this receiving such attention? Why do we worry about Pfizer's health so much, when primary prevention trials - which could obviate the need for these heart drugs altogether - fail consistently? If we spent half of what Pfizer spent on R&D (or marketing for that matter) - we'd have lots to work with in primary prevention.
But no...that's not our culture. Pfizer can turn psychogenic erectile dysfunction into a disease and then sell us costly medications for it. They can do anything.
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