Wyeth tries to save its butt, and fails
In 2010, Effexor will no longer belong to Wyeth, and the company is running scared. Four times now the pharmaceutical company has pitched new drug ideas to the FDA, and four times they’ve been rejected. The latest rejection is in relation to a proposed drug for schizophrenia. From Reuters:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded that effectiveness data for bifeprunox were not sufficient for approval when compared with other drugs, Wyeth said.
The agency also requested further information regarding human metabolism of bifeprunox, and more information about a case of a patient who died while participating in one of the clinical trials, Wyeth said.
Wyeth developed bifeprunox with Belgium’s Solvay SA and H.Lundbeck A/S.
Forbes.com says:
If the FDA [gave] the go ahead, Wyeth’s pill would enter a U.S. market for antipsychotic drugs worth more than $11 billion, according to figures from IMS Health. Top-selling treatments in the already crowded field include Eli Lilly & Co.’s Zyprexa, Johnson & Johnson’s Risperdal and AstraZeneca’s Seroquel. Sales of those treatments and others took a negative hit last year when a government study found that most modern anti-psychotics perform no better than a generic drug used in the 1950s.
Why is it that when I hear a pharmaceutical company has failed, I feel like I’m in fifth grade saying “Nanny nanny boo boo,” or whatever. I hear Nelson’s (pictured) nasal voice in my head: “Hah hah.” It’s totally twisted, but they’re so craven, I can’t help being elated when they have to take a financial hit. It’s an especially warped way of thinking in this case, given that paranoid schizophrenia is one of the few mental illnesses that I’d say virtually requires medication. (Some of you will disagree, of course.)
I should be pulling for pharmas to develop more drugs that work. But in this case, I can’t help feeling that Wyeth just wants to protect its profit margin — and who cares about the dead guy in the trial? Assholes.
liz | 10:20 AM | Uncategorized
Oh, no! No catchy bifeprunox trade name. No bifeprunox pens, pads and other chachkas. No bifeprunox seminars. No paid bifeprunox presenters. No assertions that bifeprunox trumps all existing anti-psychotics. No bifeprunox before and after ads – stock photos of a distressed person juxtaposed with a happy person who has taken bifeprunox. No bifeprunox associated websites, ex. ImsohappyItakebifeprunox.com. No “picture of health” bifeprunox sales representatives. No claims that bifeprunox is a fourth, seventh or ninth generation antipsychotic. No off-label uses for bifeprunox. No injectable bifeprunox. No instantly dissolvable bifeprunox. No bifeprunox medication compliance programs. No bifeprunox extended release. Eek!
“totally twisted, but they’re so craven, I can’t help being elated when they have to take a financial hit. It’s an especially warped way of thinking in this case, given that paranoid schizophrenia is one of the few mental illnesses that I’d say virtually requires medication.”
I couldn’t have said it any better than this.
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