Eli Lilly /Pfizer back pain treatment gets fast track status from US Food and Drug Administration

Pharma giants Eli Lilly & Co .(NYSE:LLY) and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) have received fast track development status for tanezumab, their joint development back pain treatment.

A phase III trial is currently underway and includes six studies in approximately 7,000 patients with osteoarthritis,  chronic low back pain and cancer who cannot get adequate pain relief from existing opioid therapies.

Tanezumab is designed to inhibit nerve growth factor (NGF) and the first treatment of its kind to receive Fast Track designation, a process designed to expedite the development of new drugs where there is an fill unmet medical need.

“If approved, tanezumab would be the first in a new class of non-opioid chronic pain medications,” said  Ken Verburg, chief development officer, Neuroscience & Pain.

“We believe it would represent an important medical advance in the treatment of debilitating osteoarthritis and chronic low back pain for patients who do not experience adequate pain relief or cannot tolerate currently available pain medications.”

Results from the clinical trials are projected to begin reporting out in 2018.

Story by ProactiveInvestors