They used a surgical technique to damage the spinal cord of rats and induce neuropathic pain.
Lyrica was supposed to come out of the box with unprecedented approvals for neuropathic pain, and also for epilepsy.
"The clinical management of neuropathic pain is particularly challenging, " said Dr Porreca.
Neuropathic pain, which results when nerves are damaged and send constant pain signals to the brain, can result from diabetes, chemotherapy or injury.
Neurontin, for epilepsy and neuropathic pain, Zithromax, for bacterial infections, Zyrtec, for allergies, and Viagra, for sexual dysfunction, all grew at double-digit rates.
Lyrica, a new medicine for neuropathic pain, has not been launched because the Drug Enforcement Agency still has to make a decision about its classification for the drug.
McKinnell said that the bad results for 2005 were precipitated by the problems with the Cox-2 inhibitors, which have faced safety concerns, and the surprise loss of a patent protecting Neurontin, a blockbuster for epilepsy and neuropathic pain.
By allowing them to stand up and walk, the bionic suit not only helps users overcome issues like bone density loss and neuropathic pain related to their condition, but also to gain reams of confidence -- an oft-overlooked factor in the recovery process.
Instead, doctors found that Neurontin helped with many other ailments, particularly pain caused by nerve damage due to conditions like shingles and diabetes. (This is called neuropathic pain.) That put Warner-Lambert in a bind, because it could not promote the drug for these unapproved uses.
None of this would be a problem if the drug industry had a wealth of new breakthroughs, but even with new potential big sellers like Pfizer's Lyrica, for neuropathic pain, or Merck's Gardasil, a vaccine for a virus that can lead to cervical cancer, it's not clear that new drugs can make up for the ones that will be lost.
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