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Tuesday, November 16, 2010
New Pfizer academic-industrial program based in Cambridge
By Julie M. Donnelly
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MHT's Julie Donnelly: Pharmaceuticals find drug development partners in colleges
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. today has established a new network of academic centers that will serve as a “farm team” for drug development. The Global Centers for Therapeutic Innovation is basing its headquarters in Cambridge and will establish partnerships with academic centers around the country. The first such partnership will be with the University of California, San Francisco. In 2012, Pfizer will expand the program to include academic centers in Europe and Asia.
The new research initiative is an effort to refill Pfizer’s drug pipeline, as it prepares for some its blockbuster drugs, including Viagra and Lipitor, to face generic competition in the next few years as their patents expire.
The new effort will pair teams from New York-based Pfizer and academic researchers, working side by side, in an effort to speed up drug discovery efforts. Pfizer will offer milestone payments and intellectual property rights to the universities, in exchange for the rights to commercialize resulting drug candidates. Pfizer will also provide access to the company’s antibody libraries and research tools.
“The Centers for Therapeutic Innovation represents a truly novel open innovation paradigm, combining the unique advantages of top academic research institutions with Pfizer’s leading drug development capabilities and research technologies,” said Mikael Dolsten, president of Pfizer Worldwide Research & Development, in a statement. “This new way of engaging leading external scientists is a key component of our R&D strategy. We are excited to pioneer this approach to seek to translate science into novel proofs of mechanism in a more efficient and accelerated manner to better serve patients.”
Anthony Coyle, a former vice president at a division of UK-based AstraZeneca, will head Pfizer’s Global Centers for Therapeutic Innovation.
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