Pfizer launches independent biotherapeutics and bioinnovation centre
Pfizer has launched an independent, stand-alone biotherapeutics and bioinnovation center under the direction of scientist and entrepreneur Dr Corey Goodman.
Pfizer has launched an independent, stand-alone biotherapeutics and bioinnovation center under the direction of scientist and entrepreneur Dr Corey Goodman.
Pfizer has also named Dr Martin Mackay as president of Pfizer Global Research and Development (PGRD) and Dr Briggs Morrison, who held senior research and development positions at Merck, as its new head of clinical development for the PGRD pipeline.
The centre will focus on discovering new medicines as well as securing new technologies and research tools that can be used across all of Pfizer's therapeutic areas. It will work in a highly collaborative manner both with Pfizer Global Research and Development (PGRD) and with the academic, biotech and venture communities, not only to focus on delivering new compounds for Pfizer but also on incubating start-ups with new innovative technologies.
According to Jeff Kindler, chairman and ceo, the new centre will have a "unique structure to discover, license and acquire more new product candidates that we can put into development." Dr Goodman will report to Kindler and become a member of Pfizer's Executive Leadership Team.
The centre will be based in the San Francisco Bay area and is said to be a significant departure for Pfizer and the pharmaceutical industry. Located in one of the hubs of biotechnology, the Center will have the entrepreneurial spirit of biotech and collaborate broadly with the academic, biotech, and venture communities to focus on discovering and developing new medicines.
"The centre will be built on a new model, capturing the best of both the biotech and pharmaceutical worlds," said Dr Goodman. "On the one hand, it will be independent, able to pursue its own research interests, free to establish its own distinct culture, and empowered to recruit entrepreneurial scientists.
"However, what makes this model unique is the ability of the Center to leverage all of the vast strengths of PGRD, for example, gaining access to high-throughput screening and pharmaceutical science capabilities, exchanging knowledge and tools, working closely with PGRD's biotherapeutics teams, and handing off new drug candidates to PGRD for late-stage clinical development."
He added: "With our collaborative and entrepreneurial model, we will be in the best position to find promising new targets, technologies and tools externally, to discover them organically, and to leverage them with the scale and know-how of PGRD so as to turn them into potential new medicines. While we will be focused on biotherapeutics, we will look for any innovative technology in any area that will help develop new medicines."