Pfizer has ended its trial of an SHP2 inhibitor that was being developed in cancer, the latest blow to the target after several other drugmakers have suffered setbacks.
The New York drugmaker ended the Phase 1 study of the drug, PF-07284892, “due to strategic reasons, not major safety concerns, futility, or requests from any regulatory authorities,” according to the trial registry update. The experimental medicine is still listed in Pfizer’s pipeline on its website.
The company will continue the SHP2 program and will test the experimental drug in combination with other in-house assets in separate studies, a Pfizer spokesperson said in an email to Endpoints after publication.
“Our protocol objectives of the CT-4481001 Phase 1 study were met in terms of the dosing and safety/efficacy profile,” the spokesperson added.
Pfizer acquired the drug as part of its 2019 buyout of Array BioPharma. The $11.4 billion deal came with a portfolio of approved and in-development cancer treatments.
Earlier this year, Roche ended a pact with Relay Therapeutics, and Bristol Myers Squibb also left a collaboration. AbbVie and Sanofi have ended SHP2 partnership deals as well.
Pfizer once hoped for better for its drug, however. In February, chief oncology officer Chris Boshoff described the drug as “differentiated” and “best-in-class.”
“The two or three that’s in the clinic has been challenging in terms of side effects, and we don’t see that,” Boshoff said during the company’s oncology innovation day, according to a transcript from AlphaSense.
Pfizer was testing PF-07284892 alone and in combination with other drugs, including two of the products that came from the Array deal. The move is one of several cutbacks to Array’s work, including the shutdown of a site in Colorado earlier this year.
It’s been a volatile month for Pfizer, which is facing an activist investor and last week stopped developing an investigational RSV treatment, then secured an FDA approval for a hemophilia treatment.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include information from a Pfizer spokesperson.