Eli Lilly, Pfizer End Program for Tanezumab Pain Drug

By Colin Kellaher

Eli Lilly & Co. and Pfizer Inc. have ended development of a proposed osteoarthritis pain drug following negative feedback from U.S. and European regulators, Eli Lilly said Tuesday.

The Indianapolis drugmaker said the companies have discontinued their global clinical development program for tanezumab, an investigational nerve growth factor inhibitor that they have been collaborating on since 2013.

Eli Lilly said the companies made the decision after receiving a complete response letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, indicating that the agency wouldn't approve their application for tanezumab in its current form.

An FDA advisory committee in March had voted overwhelmingly that the risks of the drug outweighed its benefits, even with a risk-mitigation strategy put forward by the companies.

The European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use last month recommended against approval of the drug in Europe.

New York-based Pfizer and Eli Lilly agreed in 2013 to develop and commercialize tanezumab, part of an investigational class of non-opioid pain medications known as nerve growth factor inhibitors, in a bid to address significant unmet needs in moderate-to-severe osteoarthritis.

Write to Colin Kellaher at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 26, 2021 08:02 ET (12:02 GMT)

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