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Learning lessons from Pfizer's $800 million failure

    Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 10, pages 163–164 (2011)Cite this article

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    The catastrophic failure of Pfizer's torcetrapib looked like it might doom an entire class of cholesterol modulators, but next month Merck will move its anacetrapib into one of the largest cardiovascular trials ever. Asher Mullard investigates how drug developers have reignited hope for the CETP inhibitors.

    On 2 December 2006, Pfizer was faced with a devastating finding: the biggest prospect in their near-term pipeline — the lipid-modulating agent torcetrapib — had raised the risk of death and heart problems in the pivotal ILLUMINATE trial. The company promptly halted development of its cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitor, into which it had already invested US$800 million, and watched its share price plummet.

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    Learning lessons from Pfizer's $800 million failure. Nat Rev Drug Discov 10, 163–164 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd3401

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