Pfizer is ending research for drugs to treat Alzheimer's and Parkinson's

Pfizer will no longer conduct research and development into finding new drugs to treat Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

The pharmaceutical company made the announcement on Saturday, and it estimates it will cut 300 jobs from its neuroscience discovery and early development programs, Reuters reports. Pfizer, along with GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly, is part of the Dementia Discovery Fund; in 2012, it saw its drug bapineuzumab, made in partnership with Johnson & Johnson for people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's, fail in the second round of clinical trials.

Pfizer said it is redistributing the money it spends on research and is not changing the research and development funding for Lyrica, used to treat fibromyalgia, and tanezumab, marketed as a treatment for joint pain caused by osteoarthritis.

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