October 5, 2016
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
In the last few months, pretty much since the Allergan acquisition deal fell through, Pfizer has bought Anacor , Medivation , and the infectious disease compounds from AstraZeneca . Jon Crowley, writing for Seeking Alpha, takes a closer look at the pipeline products Pfizer picked up in these deals.
In August, Pfizer bought the rights to several antibiotics from AstraZeneca . There were two products they acquired that are still in clinical development, Aztreonam-Avibactam (ATM-AVI) and Ceftaroline-Avibactam (CXL). The first is a combo drug to treat multidrug resistant gram negative bacteria. Crowley writes, “I think ATM-AVI should find a niche for itself eventually treating resistant strains E. coli and K. pneumoniae of which there are few treatment options and some of the options available can have severe side effects (colistin and tigecycline).
CXL adds a beta-lactamase inhibitor to an already approved ceftaroline. This should allow CXL to have expanded coverage, and although unlikely to be a blockbuster, it does give physicians more options.
From the Anacor acquisition, Pfizer picked up Crisaborole, which is being evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat mild to moderate atopic dermatitis. Goldman Sachs projects sales could hit $2 billion annually, although Crowley isn’t as optimistic. Since no new drug for atopic dermatitis has been approved in 15 years, it might do fairly well anyway, although Sanofi and Regeneron are trying to get dupilumab approved for atopic dermatitis as well.
Anacor is also working on other products, including one to treat inflammation.
When it acquired Medivation , Pfizer picked up Xtandi for prostate cancer, which is well on its way to becoming a blockbuster. It also picked up two more cancer drugs in the pipeline, talazoparib and pidilizumab.
Talazoparib is a PARP inhibitor that is being evaluated in breast, prostate, ovarian, and small cell lung cancer. It is being studied in a Phase III clinical trial for germline BRCA mutated metastatic breast cancer, with an FDA decision sometime in 2017. Crowley says, “I think Talazoparib definitely has blockbuster potential especially if it establishes itself as the best of class. Medivation CEO herself thinks Talazoparib could be bigger than Xtandi.”
Pidilizumab is being evaluated in Phase I and Phase II trials. The Phase II trial is in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and primary findings are projected for June 2018. Crowley writes, “Previous data has shown Pidilizumab had a 52 percent complete response rate in patients with B-cell lymphoma so the drug definitely has potential but it is far too early to make any accurate predictions. Both these drugs will fit nicely in Pfizer’s growing oncology business.”
And although Crowley doesn’t mention it, on September 15, Pfizer signed an option and license deal with Rockville, Maryland-based OncoImmune for ONC-392, a differentiated preclinical anti-CTLA4 monoclonal antibody. This is in the immune-oncology space. ONC-392 targets CTLA-4, which is secreted by cancer cells and blocks the immune system’s T-cells. If OncoImmune’s compound is a success, Pfizer has the option to other CTLA-4 antibodies in the company’s pipeline.
