8:00 a.m. ET / Pfizer Media Relations
Dean Mastrojohn
(212) 733-6944
Pfizer Partners with NIH to Share Resources to Advance Medical Innovationand Speed Drug Discovery
NEW YORK, N.Y., December 4 – Pfizer hasentered into an agreement with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct collaborative research programs focused on translating basic research into clinical applications. Pfizer’s Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) will partner with NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS; an effort designed to help bridge the gap between early scientific discovery and its translation into new medicines through public-private resource sharing. With this agreement, the NIH has become the first U.S. government agency to enter into a collaborative agreement to conduct research through Pfizer’s CTI network.
“Forging novel collaborations has become the key to unlocking the scientific potential that exists within industry, academia, and government,” said Mikael Dolsten, M.D., Ph.D., President of Worldwide Research and Development at Pfizer. “In this first-of-its-kind collaboration, Pfizer’s CTI and NIH’s NCATS bring a tremendous amount of scientific fortitude that we hope will translate into transformative therapies for patients.”
As part of the agreement, the partners could enter into several research collaborations that combine NIH intramural investigators’ knowledge of biological mechanisms with Pfizer’s pre-clinical and clinical development expertise. In addition to NIH, the CTI network includes 25 academic institutions and four patient foundations.
“Pfizer’s goal for the CTI program is to bring medical science to the patient bedside and to identify potential treatments for unmet medical needs, which fits perfectly with NCATS’ goal to improve translational efficiency,” said Christopher P. Austin, M.D., NCATS Director. “The collaboration with CTI will expand NCATS’ capabilities to serve as a catalyst for the transformation of translational research and thus potentially bring more treatments to more patients more efficiently.”
It is expected that all NIH intramural researchers will have the opportunity to apply for CTI partnership opportunities this fiscal year (2015). Those selected will have access to Pfizer’s proprietary pre-clinical drug discovery tools and technologies as well as pre-clinical study and regulatory expertise. In addition,selected researchers may be provided with support to generate data for Investigational New Drug Applications to the Food and Drug Administration. This could enable potential treatments identified through the research collaboration to move into human clinical trials. A joint Pfizer-NIH steering committee will govern the partnership and be responsible for making important decisions about each research program.
“Over the past four years, CTI has built a network of collaborators, convening such critical resources as patients, clinicians, researchers, foundation representatives, and access to data to speed the drug discovery process,” said Anthony J. Coyle, Ph.D., Senior Vice President at Pfizer and CTI’s Chief Scientific Officer. “By design, our collaborations are meant to empower and reward our partners with each project’s success. Adding NIH and the strengths of its investigators to CTI’s network is the realization of a long-time vision for CTI, and I am thrilled at what this partnership could ultimately mean for patients awaiting new therapies and cures.”
Several thousand genetic diseases affect humans, and most do not have any approved treatments. A new drug can take more than 10 years and $1 billion to develop, with a failure rate exceeding 95 percent.
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The Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) is part of Pfizer’s Worldwide R&D division. It is an entrepreneurial group that partners with academic medical centers and foundations, and now the National Institutes of Health, with the goal of translating promising science into clinical candidates. CTI was founded on a collaborative model, with shared decision making and aligned incentives. To learn more, visit
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