Pfizer ends cholesterol drug trials after patient deaths

The world’s largest pharmaceutical firm has axed clinical trials and development for a “flagship” cholesterol drug because of an unexpected number of deaths and cardiovascular problems.

Pfizer said it was told yesterday that an independent board monitoring a study for Torcetrapib, a drug that raises levels of HDL, commonly known as “good cholesterol”, recommended that the work should end because of “an imbalance of mortality and cardiovascular events”.