Pfizer discontinues Phase III drug trial; stock continues to drag

The most common negative reactions were fatigue, asthenia, diarrhea, nausea, mucositis/stomatitis, vomiting, dyspepsia, abdominal pain, constipation, hypertension, rash, hand-foot syndrome, skin discoloration, altered taste, anorexia, bleeding, and a partridge in a pear tree. Rothenberg said that "Pfizer remains committed to developing new agents for colorectal and other GI cancers with ongoing clinical studies evaluating other agents in its pipeline."

Shares of the pharmaceutical firm have been in free-fall mode since the century turned. The stock currently faces overhead resistance from its 10-month moving average, which it has not closed above since June 2007. While this news may not be the end of the world for PFE, it isn't the kind of news a pharmaceutical company wants to hear. There is a chance for PFE to figure out what is wrong with the treatment, get it fixed and then conduct studies. My question is if someone can do this for the stock -- it sure looks like the shares could use a bit of medicine.