Pharma Blog Watch

Pfizer's Cholesterol 'Conundrum' (Envisioning 2.0)
In his blog, Fard Johnmar discusses data recently released by Pfizer on its investigational cholesterol drug. "Over the past few years, Pfizer has been spending a lot of money — about $800 million — on its new cholesterol fighter torcetrapib. One of the key benefits of the drug is that it may significantly increase HDL or good cholesterol and clear dangerous blockages from people's arteries." But the new trial results show that "the drug increases systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) an average of three to four millimeters of mercury."

"Clearly, Pfizer faces a conundrum. How can it convince physicians to prescribe a cardiovascular medicine that may increase the risk of heart disease?" he writes. "However, all of this speculation will be moot if the FDA does not approve torcetrapib. If Pfizer is able to convince the advisory board and the agency of the drug's benefits, it will have a solid argument for why physicians and patients should use the product."