Pain

IIn recent years there have been very few breakthrough medicines for the treatment of chronic pain, with many of the current standard medicines dating back decades (if not centuries). The result of this is that there are still millions of patients across the world for whom there is no adequate medicine to treat their pain. The impact of pain is profound. Frequent sufferers are stopped from working, sleeping, and socializing, with a common result of depression.

Pfizer's pain team hopes that new insights into the causes of pain, and new ways to actually 'measure' it, can help usher in a series of new medicines that will provide greater relief from the symptoms of pain, allowing patients to return to normal lives at work and at home.

Pain Conditions

Indications for medicines currently in phases of development, from Phase 1 through recent approval:

• Acute Pain – The sudden onset of pain that lasts for a short time.
• Chronic Pain – Persistent pain, the cause of which is often unidentified.
• Fibromyalgia – Primarily occurring in women, and characterized by widespread pain and tenderness in muscles and areas around joints, accompanied by fatigue.
• Neuropathic Pain – Pain caused by nerve damage or damage to the nervous system. Diabetic neuropathy is pain caused by damage to the spine and nerves as a specific result of diabetes.
• Osteoarthritic Pain – Pain caused by osteoarthritis.