Research pact joins Pfizer and Merck Serono with academics
pharmafile | April 3, 2014 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Lupus, Merck Serono, Pfizer, broad institute, emd, kidney
Merck’s US affiliate EMD Serono and Pfizer have entered into a research agreement with the Broad Institute to investigate autoimmune disease treatment avenues.
Specifically the collaboration is to focus on the genomic profiling of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and Lupus Nephritis (LN) patients, and will be funded by Merck Serono (the biopharma division of Merck) and Pfizer.
The head of the Translational Innovation Platform Immunology & Neurodegenerative Diseases at Merck Serono, Harsukh Parmar, says: “Combined with the Broad Institute’s technical know-how, we see this collaboration aiming for a significant contribution to potential future innovative treatments of Lupus and Lupus Nephritis.”
The terms of the agreement sees the big pharma sponsoring members receiving real-time access to all data and analysis, and will in addition have the ability to send a research scientist to the Broad Institute to foster exchange of technology expertise in the area of genomic profiling.
SLE is a systemic autoimmune disease that can cause LN, an inflammation of the kidney. In SLE patients in addition to the kidney, other tissues and organs can be affected including the skin, the nervous system, or joints.
As per part of this arrangement the Broad Institute – that is affiliated to the illustrious universities MIT and Harvard – will investigate clinical samples obtained from SLE and LN patients, and apply biochemical and next-generation sequencing technologies.
They will also analyze immune cell subpopulations with the goal being to identify biomarkers, in order to then (as commonly found in pharma/academia tie-ups) define target patient populations and create future treatments.
In addition, through computational modelling approaches Merck Serono says the project aims to identify key molecular drivers of SLE and LN kidney flares, and thereby to discover potential novel drug targets as the basis for innovative therapies.
Johan Lund, senior VP and chief scientific officer of Immunoscience at Pfizer adds: “We are pleased to collaborate with Merck Serono and the Broad Institute on research designed to enhance our understanding of the molecular and cellular underpinnings of Lupus, a debilitating disease that has long been a mystery to the scientific community.”
Brett Wells
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