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5 WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG NOVEMBER 22, 2010 P FIZER IS FORMING a network of academic collaborators to accelerate the translation of basic science into biologics-based drugs. The University of California, San Francisco, has signed on as the first of what are expected to be multiple partners in Pfizer’s Global Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI), based in Cambridge, Mass. UCSF will receive up to $85 million in research sup- port and milestone payments over the course of the five- year partnership. Pfizer will open labs adjacent to the UCSF campus, where 25 to 30 Pfizer scientists will work alongside university researchers to find new biologics targeting a range of diseases. Although Pfizer has an R&D site in South San Francisco, proximity to the UCSF cam- pus was seen as critical to fostering “a true intellectual exchange,” says Anthony J. Coyle, who will head CTI. Pfizer is rolling out CTI at a time when venture capi- tal for early-stage research is scarce. At the same time, drug companies are becoming more reliant on external research to fill their pipelines. “Increasingly, the Pfizers of the world are trying to reduce their spending on R&D and leverage other people’s effort,” says G. Steven Bur- rill, CEO of the life sciences investment firm Burrill & Co. “I think we’re going to see more relationships like this as big companies try to get closer to the source of where research is actually done.” Under the pact, UCSF scientists will have access to Pfizer’s phage display libraries and other antibody re- search tools. Metabolism and endocrinology professor and UCSF executive vice chancellor Jeffrey A. Bluestone says bringing in Pfizer’s technology will ease the transla- tion of university research into medicines and could cut two to three years out of the drug development process. A call for proposals is going out to UCSF shortly, and a steering committee composed of four representatives each from Pfizer and the university will decide which projects to fund. Over the next three years, CTI expects to accept up to eight programs annually from UCSF. Once a program is accepted, CTI will mete out funding on a milestone basis. Initially, CTI will cover postdocs and the primary investigator’s lab. The steering committee will then decide whether a project should move forward to preclinical and clinical studies. The venture-capital-like approach to funding reflects the tightening of R&D purse strings at big pharma firms. “Those old days of writing big-dollar checks up front are in the past,” Coyle says. Ultimately, Pfizer hopes to have seven or eight part- ners in its network. Three or four of the partners will be based in the U.S., one or two in Europe, and the rest in Asia or Australia. Pfizer expects to announce the next two partners—academic institutions in Boston and New York City—by year’s end, Coyle says. The network is a leap forward for Pfizer, which has in recent years been evolving its relationship with univer- sities beyond making grants to individual researchers. In 2008, for example, Pfizer and UCSF’s branch of QB3, the multicampus California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, signed a broad-ranging three-year re- search pact worth up to $9.5 million. This spring, the company shook up the industry- academia model again: It gave scientists at Washington University in St. Louis access to data on Pfizer com- pounds that have gone through or are in clinical trials (C&EN, Nov. 8, page 14). Not everyone thinks closer ties be- tween drug companies and universities are a good thing. The pact “just goes one more step in blurring the boundaries be- tween academia and industry as though they had the same missions—which they don’t,” says Marcia Angell, a senior lec- turer in social medicine at Harvard Medi- cal School and former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine. LISA JARVIS UCSF biomedical researchers will collaborate with Pfizer scientists. “I think we’re going to see more relationships like this as big companies try to get closer to the source of where research is actually done.” —G. STEVEN BURRILL news of the week NOVEMBER 22, 2010 EDITED BY ALICIA J. CHAMBERS & LAUREN K. WOLF U OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO PFIZER UNVEILS ACADEMIC NETWORK ALLIANCES: UCSF will be the first partner in firm’s Global Centers for Therapeutic Innovation

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Page 1: PFIZER UNVEILS ACADEMIC NETWORK

5WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG NOVEMBER 22, 2010

PFIZER IS FORMING a network of academic collaborators to accelerate the translation of basic science into biologics-based drugs. The

University of California, San Francisco, has signed on as the first of what are expected to be multiple partners in Pfizer’s Global Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI), based in Cambridge, Mass.

UCSF will receive up to $85 million in research sup-port and milestone payments over the course of the five-year partnership. Pfizer will open labs adjacent to the UCSF campus, where 25 to 30 Pfizer scientists will work alongside university researchers to find new biologics targeting a range of diseases. Although Pfizer has an R&D site in South San Francisco, proximity to the UCSF cam-pus was seen as critical to fostering “a true intellectual exchange,” says Anthony J. Coyle, who will head CTI.

Pfizer is rolling out CTI at a time when venture capi-tal for early-stage research is scarce. At the same time, drug companies are becoming more reliant on external research to fill their pipelines. “Increasingly, the Pfizers of the world are trying to reduce their spending on R&D and leverage other people’s effort,” says G. Steven Bur-rill, CEO of the life sciences investment firm Burrill & Co. “I think we’re going to see more relationships like this as big companies try to get closer to the source of where research is actually done.”

Under the pact, UCSF scientists will have access to Pfizer’s phage display libraries and other antibody re-search tools. Metabolism and endocrinology professor and UCSF executive vice chancellor Jeffrey A. Bluestone says bringing in Pfizer’s technology will ease the transla-tion of university research into medicines and could cut two to three years out of the drug development process.

A call for proposals is going out to UCSF shortly, and a steering committee composed of four representatives each from Pfizer and the university will decide which projects to fund. Over the next three years, CTI expects to accept up to eight programs annually from UCSF.

Once a program is accepted, CTI will mete out funding on a milestone basis. Initially, CTI will cover postdocs and the

primary investigator’s lab. The steering committee will then decide whether a project should move forward to preclinical and clinical studies.

The venture-capital-like approach to funding reflects the tightening of R&D purse strings at big pharma firms. “Those old days of writing big-dollar checks up front are in the past,” Coyle says.

Ultimately, Pfizer hopes to have seven or eight part-ners in its network. Three or four of the partners will be based in the U.S., one or two in Europe, and the rest in Asia or Australia. Pfizer expects to announce the next two partners—academic institutions in Boston and New York City—by year’s end, Coyle says.

The network is a leap forward for Pfizer, which has in recent years been evolving its relationship with univer-sities beyond making grants to individual researchers. In 2008, for example, Pfizer and UCSF’s branch of QB3, the multicampus California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, signed a broad-ranging three-year re-search pact worth up to $9.5 million.

This spring, the company shook up the industry-academia model again: It gave scientists at Washington University in St. Louis access to data on Pfizer com-

pounds that have gone through or are in clinical trials (C&EN, Nov. 8, page 14).

Not everyone thinks closer ties be-tween drug companies and universities are a good thing. The pact “just goes one more step in blurring the boundaries be-tween academia and industry as though they had the same missions—which they don’t,” says Marcia Angell, a senior lec-turer in social medicine at Harvard Medi-cal School and former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine . —LISA JARVIS

UCSF biomedical researchers will collaborate with Pfizer scientists.

“I think we’re going to see more relationships like this as big companies try to get closer to the source of where research is actually done.” —G. STEVEN BURRILL

news of the week NOVEMBER 22, 2010 EDITED BY ALICIA J. CHAMBERS & LAUREN K. WOLF

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PFIZER UNVEILS ACADEMIC NETWORK

ALLIANCES: UCSF will be the first partner in firm’s Global Centers

for Therapeutic Innovation