Progress With Pfizer's Ziprasidone

A double-blind, placebo-controlled six-week study of Pfizer'sschizophrenia agent ziprasidone (40mg and 80mg bid), has demonstrated that the drug is significantly superior to placebo on all primary positive and negative outcome measures of schizophrenia.

Ziprasidone was also found to be significantly more effective than placebo in alleviating depressive symptoms and, in another outpatient study, the drug had a significantly greater effect in reducing both anxiety and depression in those patients with high baseline levels.

Ziprasidone, which is currently in Phase III trials, antagonizes the 5-HT2C and 5-HT1D receptors and is an agonist at the 5-HT1A receptor. It also has an affinity for dopamine D3 receptors which is as high as its affinity for D2 receptors.