An independent monitoring board has recently detected the fact that axitinib drug, which had been designed to treat advanced pancreatic cancer, shows no evidence of prolonging the survival rate. Thus, Pfizer Inc, the company which has developed the drug, announced on Friday that it had stopped the stage study of the experimental drug.

Yet, the axitinib is still being tracked to find out whether it may treat kidney cancer in its late stage clinical trials and other types of cancer such as non-small cell lung cancer and colon cancer.

Even if the drug seemed to have effect on the hard to treat advanced pancreatic cancer in combination with chemotherapy and Pfizer decided to go on with the larger and more expensive study, Phase III trials, axitinib proved to be of no use in increasing the survival rate.

Mace Rothenberg, head of Pfizer's oncology business unit, wrote in a statement that the results proved to be very disappointing regarding the previous studies of Phase II, which tended to treat the advanced pancreatic cancer. As a result to the Phase III study, Pfizer notified all the clinical trial investigations to cut off the treatment with axitinib.

Pfizer said that it would try to figure out different compounds which might work in healing the pancreatic cancer, which has very few treatment options. Yet, the company has been dealing with a lot of research disappointments in the past few years.

They are still trying to replace Lipitor, the cholesterol fighter, before the money invested in it ($12 billion) goes off patent at the end of 2011. Due to its failures, Pfizer bought the smaller rival Wyeth for $68 billion.