This could spell the end of the NGF experiment

You may recall a class of medicines called NGF inhibitors, pain treatments that were once considered future blockbusters but saw their potential derailed by serious safety issues. A few companies persevered, lowering doses and carefully picking patients for clinical trials in hopes of showing a benefit without triggering any worrisome side effects.

Which brings us to last night’s news: One NGF drug, from Pfizer and Eli Lilly, didn’t meet its goals in a trial meant to support FDA approval. And, more damning, patients who got the drug had significantly more incidents of joint damage — the very risk that previously plagued NGF treatments — than those who got over-the-counter pain pills like ibuprofen.

That, according to analysts at Leerink, “effectively signaled the end of this program,” and it could be a worrying sign for the partnership of Teva and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, who are running a late-stage trial on an NGF treatment of their own. That study is testing a lower dose that, in theory, will prove safer, but Lilly and Pfizer’s fate is not an encouraging sign.