Pfizer, Inc. (PFE), Tuesday said a study presented at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting in San Francisco revealed that the addition of Pfizer's Lyrica capsules CV to other generalized anxiety disorder or GAD treatments significantly improved symptoms of the condition in patients who responded only partially to previous treatments.
The New York-based company indicated generalized anxiety disorder as a chronic, debilitating anxiety disorder that affected nearly seven million Americans. The symptoms of the disorder include muscle tension, fatigue, and sleep disturbance, and other aches and pains. About 40% to 60% of patients having generalized anxiety disorder failed to achieve remission after six months of treatment in clinical studies with serontonin reuptake inhibitors -SSRIs - or serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors - SNRIs, two common classes of FDA-approved GAD treatments.
However, the previously completed study revealed that patients treated with Lyrica in addition to their baseline SSRI/SNRI therapy showed significant improvement in overall anxiety symptoms as well as individual psychological and physical symptoms compared to those treated with baseline therapy alone as measured by the Hamilton Anxiety Scale - HAM-A , an interview scale that measures the severity of a patient's anxiety.
Pfizer stated the trial as the first large, placebo-controlled trial intended to demonstrate the efficacy of an add-on therapy strategy in patients who failed to respond to two different courses of GAD monotherapy with a SSRI, SNRI or benzodiazepine.
PFE closed Tuesday's regular trading at $15.10, down $0.09 or 0.59%, on a volume of 33.95 million shares on the NYSE. In after hours, the share gained $0.04 or 0.24%, trading at $15.14.
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