Shares of Pfizer Inc. slipped in late morning trading Tuesday, a day after the drugmaker with research operations in Groton said a drug failed in a late-stage study of lung cancer patients, The Associated Press reports.
New York-based Pfizer announced that Sutent, also called sunitinib, failed to improve overall survival rates in patients who had previously been treated for lung cancer. The study combined Sutent with the drug Tarceva, or erlotinib, and compared that combination with patients only taking Tarceva.
Pfizer, the world’s largest drugmaker, said the combination did meet a secondary goal of improving progression-free survival in patients. The company said it is still analyzing study data.
Sutent is currently on the market as a treatment for advanced kidney cancer and gastrointestinal cancer.
At 11 a.m., Pfizer was down 23 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $15.87.
