Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. released a statement today that said the company’s drug Inlyta, which is used to treat renal cell carcinoma has failed to meet its primary endpoint during a long term study.

Mace Rothenberg, senior vice president of clinical development and medical affairs for Pfizer’s oncology business, told Fox Business:

“We narrowly missed the primary endpoint in this trial. We are analyzing the study findings to determine whether further evaluation of Inlyta in specific subpopulations of treatment-naive patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma would be warranted.”

Inlyta, also called axitinib, failed to demonstrate that it could produce statistically significantly longer progression free survival versus the current treatment on the market which is called sorafenib, a treatment for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

Pfizer in a stament said that it is also investigating axitinib in a midstage trial in treatment-naive patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma and in a separate trial for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Additionally, under a development agreement between Pfizer and SFJ Pharma SFJ is conducting a late-stage clinical trial in Asia studying axitinib for adjuvant treatment of patients at high risk of recurrent renal cell carcinoma following kidney removal.

It was just last year that Inlyta was approved for patients with previously treated advanced renal cell carcinoma.  Several countries stood by the approval including the United States, the European Union, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, South Korea and Australia.

Shares in Pfizer rose in the announcement in after hours trading but the real test for Pfizer will be when the market opens today.  The stock is already up more than 35% for the year.

Pfizer’s Inlyta Drug Misses Primary Endpoint is a post from: The Inquisitr