Fibromyalgia

Pfizer's Lyrica booms on iffy diagnosis

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 06:59:58 -0500

Is fibromyalgia an ill-gotten label that could only benefit drug companies? Or is it a real disease that needs treatment? Judging by the abrupt rise in prescriptions for the Pfizer drug Lyrica since it was approved for fibromyalgia treatment in June, it's real. But doctors are still arguing. Even the physician who initially identified the problem now say he doesn't think it's a true disorder

Meanwhile, patient advocates are hoping that widespread drug treatment will legitimize the disease rather than vice versa. Just as Prozac brought depression out of the closet, so might Lyrica for fibromyalgia.

That, of course, would only be to Pfizer's benefit. An estimated 10 million American adults suffer from the disorder. That's not quite the 15 million who suffer from depression each year, but it's plenty. Already, worldwide sales of Lyrica grew by 50 percent in 2007, and analysts expect further growth of some 30 percent in 2008--even as Eli Lilly and Forest Laboratories prepare to launch their own fibromyalgia remedies, probably later this year.

- read this article from the New York Times

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Northwestern sells Lyrica rights for $700M

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:59:54 -0500

It's the last big Lyrica bonanza for Northwestern University. The school sold part of its royalty rights to the blockbuster drug for $700 million. That's a big chunk of change--and this after several years of plowing Lyrica royalties into the university nanotech center, recruiting top-name scientists and building new facilities for them. Now, Northwestern will deposit the lump sum in its endowment fund, where it can earn interest. And it will still collect some money off the (unspecified) royalties it still owns.

The buyer? Royalty Pharma, a New York-based company that's made a practice of buying royalty rights from research universities.

- see this release
- read the article from the Chicago Tribune

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Lilly pursues new Cymbalta approval

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 06:59:57 -0400

What do you do with a booming antidepressant? Broaden its scope, of course. Eli Lilly has filed for FDA approval to sell Cymbalta as a fibromyalgia remedy. It's already marketed for use against general anxiety and nerve pain, in addition to depression.

Lilly announced its supplemental drug app with news of a study that found that fibromyalgia patients taking Cymbalta felt less pain than those taking placebo. The study subjects included patients with depression and those without. Already, Cymbalta has been a hot performer for Lilly this year. First-quarter sales of the drug were up almost 90 percent over the same period last year, to $41.8 million, and second quarter sales reached $519.5 million, at least in part because of an aggressive direct-to-consumer campaign begun last summer. If approved for fibromyalgia, Cymbalta would find a broad new market: an estimated 3 to 6 million Americans have the disease, according to the American College of Rheumatology.

- check out the release
- read the RTT News report

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