From Reuters:

Pfizer, Inc. said it is dropping two drugs in late-stage development -- one for anxiety and one for fibromyalgia -- after data showed they would not work much better than existing treatments.

The dropped drugs are the latest casualties of the No. 1 drugmaker's sputtering research engine. Earlier this year the company halted a late-stage trial of a drug that failed to improve survival in pancreatic cancer patients and last year it dropped a late-stage obesity drug.

Pfizer said on Tuesday it is canceling its fibromyalgia drug esreboxetine, as well as a drug for generalized anxiety disorder known as PD 332,334.

Pfizer, which is desperately searching for new products to replace its $13 billion-a-year cholesterol drug Lipitor, which goes off patent in late 2011, said it plans to focus on products that address unmet medical needs.

Pfizer said it will continue to pursue an application for its drug Lyrica as a treatment for chronic anxiety disorder. Lyrica is already approved to treat epilepsy and fibromyalgia, a condition characterized by chronic pain and fatigue.

The company said it plans to focus its attention on areas where there are few effective treatments. It said it is moving forward with an experimental drug, tanezumab, in broad areas of pain management. It is already studying the drug in patients with osteoarthritis.

In addition, the company sees potential opportunities for its experimental drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease and thrombosis.

And from The Washington Post:

Pfizer's own Lyrica, originally approved for epileptic seizures, became the first drug approved for fibromyalgia in the U.S. in June 2007. Then rival Eli Lilly & Co.'s Cymbalta, an antidepressant, won U.S. approval as a treatment for fibromyalgia in June 2008, and Forest Laboratories Inc. and Cypress Bioscience Inc. received approval for their drug Savella in January.

Cymbalta was approved to treat generalized anxiety disorder two years ago. Other psychiatric drugs, while not specifically approved for generalized anxiety disorder, also are used to treat it.

Pfizer said it will continue to pursue approval for using Lyrica to treat generalized anxiety disorder, a chronic condition with symptoms including persistent anxiety, exaggerated worry and tension that impairs daily function.

From United Press International, Inc.:

Eli Lilly and Co. said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved duloxetine HCl, marketed under the name Cymbalta, for fibromyalgia.

The Indianapolis drug maker said Cymbalta is the first serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor proven to give relief to patients with the pain disorder.

"The FDA approval of Cymbalta for the management of fibromyalgia is another important step in the efforts to ensure that people with fibromyalgia will have the availability of effective medications to help reduce the chronic, widespread pain of this life-altering disorder," Lynne Matallana, president of the National Fibromyalgia Association, said in a statement.

Cymbalta was previously approved for the management of diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain, the treatment of major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder in adults age 18 years and older, Eli Lilly said.