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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowEli Lilly and Co. pulled the plug on yet another drug in its pipeline that was in the late stages of testing, further complicating
the company’s attempts to find revenue before losing patent protection on its bestseller.
The Indianapolis-based
drugmaker announced today that its experimental osteoporosis drug arzoxifene proved effective at treating the disease, but
did not prove substantially more effective than existing treatments.
The company will discontinue its Phase 3 clinical
trial of the drug. Doing so will force the company to take an after-tax charge of $35 million to $45 million, or 3 to 4 cents
per share. However, Lilly affirmed its previous year-end profit forecast of $4.14 to $4.24 per share.
"At
Lilly, our goal is to provide innovative therapies that result in better patient outcomes," said M. Johnston Erwin, global
brand development leader for the musculoskeletal platform at Lilly. "We are disappointed that the … data did not convincingly
demonstrate that arzoxifene would represent a meaningful advancement in the treatment of osteoporosis."
In
July, Lilly and a development partner canceled a Phase 3 trial of a multiple sclerosis medicine because it failed to delay
progression of the disease in patients.
Lilly needs new blockbuster drugs because it will lose about $4.7 billion
in revenue when its bestseller Zyprexa loses patent protection in late 2011. At least four other top-selling Lilly drugs will
also lose sales to generic copies between 2012 and 2014.
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