Pfizer signs ground-breaking academic research deal
pharmafile | May 18, 2010 | News story | Research and Development | Pfizer, US, academia, clinical research
Pfizer is teaming up with academia in a five-year bid to discover new uses for existing compounds.
The pharma manufacturer is set to pay Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis $22.5 million as part of the deal, and will also make available to the university’s scientists data on over 500 pharma candidates that have been, or are being, tested, in a bid to avoid replicating research.
Pfizer believes it is the first time that a manufacturer has disclosed propriety information about drug compounds to academic scientists.
Its hope is that this search for new uses – called indications discovery – will become increasingly successful as scientists improve their knowledge of the way diseases function at molecular level.
“There are two realities in drug discovery,” says Don Frail, chief scientific officer of Pfizer’s Indications Discovery Unit.
“The majority of candidates tested in development do not give the desired result, yet those drugs that do succeed typically have multiple uses.”
Work is also advancing into variables such as how genetic variations – another stumbling block – can affect patients’ responses to different medicines.
Frail’s unit will move its laboratories from the suburbs of St. Louis to the Center of Research Technology and Entrepreneurial Exchange biosciences district (CORTEX), next to Washington University School of Medicine.
A new online portal will give some university investigators what Pfizer says will be “unprecedented access” to its clinical and preclinical data, while a joint advisory committee will rule on proposals for new research.
Larry Shapiro, dean of the medical school, says: “We are pleased to see our long-standing relationship with Pfizer evolve into this innovative model of partnership.”
The university, whose areas of scientific expertise include Alzheimer’s, cancer and diabetes, signed its first agreement back in 1982 with a St. Louis-based predecessor to Pfizer.
“We look forward to the many discoveries that will emerge from this collaboration,” Shapiro adds.
Frail concludes: “By harnessing the scientific expertise at this leading academic medical centre, the collaboration seeks to discover entirely new uses for these compounds in areas of high patient need that might otherwise be left undiscovered.”
Adam Hill
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