Pfizer and UCSF Sign R&D Collaboration, More Planned

(A. Kotok)

Pfizer Inc., the New York, N.Y. pharmaceutical manufacturer, said today it will establish a network of partnerships with academic medical centers to access the talents of university researchers. Called the Global Centers for Therapeutic Innovation, the University of California, San Francisco is the first university in Pfizer’s network.

Pfizer plans to establish a presence at each partner site that gives Pfizer and academic medical center teams opportunities to to work side by side.  Pfizer will also make available its antibody libraries and internal research tools along with other technical support.

In addition to funding pre-clinical and clinical development programs, Pfizer will offer academic partners intellectual property and ownership rights to support continued experimentation, along with rights to publication.  Milestone payments and royalties related to the advancement of sponsored programs will also be granted.  In return, Pfizer expects to broaden its pipeline with new and different candidate drugs.

The network will start with collaborations in the U.S., but is expected to expand into Europe and Asia in 2012.  Each collaboration will be governed by a joint steering committee comprised of Pfizer and academic medical center representatives to provide leadership and evaluate the progress of each program.

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