Pfizer oral drug may shake up arthritis market

From Reuters:
An experimental oral drug from Pfizer could shake up the rheumatoid arthritis market, after impressive results were presented at a medical meeting in Denmark this week.

The drug, known only by the code CP-690,550, is likely to prove a cheaper and more convenient alternative to costly anti-TNF biotech treatments, which have led the field in the past decade, medical experts and industry analysts said.

"The next wave of drugs will be oral. I think what companies are trying to develop are oral agents that can be at least as effective or almost as effective as an anti-TNF," said lead investigator Roy Fleischmann of University of Texas, Dallas.

"Having a compound that is more convenient and cheaper, with a similar risk-benefit ratio to a more expensive biologic, is very important, particularly in these tough economic times," he told Reuters in a telephone interview. ...more