Monday, April 02, 2007

Pfizer director: "We dont want another torcetrapib. It was a total disaster"!

"This (maraviroc) is the biggest thing to come out of here in 10 years," enthused Mark Edwards, Pfizer's senior director of science policy at Pfizer's Sandwich, UK, site.

The site looks an unlikely place to develop what could be among the world's most effective treatment for Aids. From the outside, it resembles what could be a futuristic penal colony.

Security is high and the cluster of squat, non-descript buildings - strung together by elevated hallways - is ringed by a fence topped with razor-wire.

Inside, labs teeming with white-coated boffins use some of the most highly specialised research equipment in the world to weed out duds early in the process, before years of work and millions of dollars are potentially frittered away on them.

"We don't want another torcetrapib. It was a total disaster," said Mr Edwards. "We're trying to de-risk the process, and at an earlier stage."

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