NEW YORK, New York—Hard on the heels of the Obama Administration's $1.1 billion push for comparative studies of drug benefits, Pfizer, Inc, has stopped development of esreboxetine, which was in phase II trials for fibromyalgia (FM).

According to a company press release, after review of “existing data for esreboxetine for the treatment of fibromyalgia, along with current market dynamics, it was considered unlikely” that the drug “would provide meaningful benefit to patients beyond the current standard of care.”

“While confident in the safety of these compounds, we don’t believe that they provide significant benefit over other therapies,” said Pedro Lichtinger, President and General Manager of Pfizer’s Primary Care Business Unit.

Mr. Lichtinger continued, “In Primary Care, we continually review our portfolio to ensure we are developing medicines in areas of unmet need and have found significant potential opportunities to bring more value to patients and our company. For example, we are advancing the investigational compound tanezumab into areas of pain management beyond osteoarthritis and see potential opportunities for other investigational compounds in other areas of significant patient need, including Alzheimer’s disease and thrombosis. Our goal is to use our resources efficiently and effectively to continue to deliver medical innovations to the global health community.”

Pfizer’s Lyrica (pregabalin) and Lilly's Cymbalta (duloxetine) have both been approved for fibromyalgia.