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UCSF, Pfizer sign novel collaborative research deal |
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The University of California-San Francisco and drug giant Pfizer Inc. have signed a novel, broad-ranging collaboration agreement that will provide up to $9.5 million in funding for university research that could lead to new drugs or biomedical tools. The three-year agreement is part of Pfizer's attempt to break the traditional mold of pharmaceutical development and embrace the more nimble style of biotech companies that build on cutting-edge research. Pfizer has already moved in that direction by acquiring biotech companies and forming partnerships with others. But under the deal with UCSF, Pfizer will contribute financial support for early-stage research -- a role dominated by government grant-making agencies and VCs willing to take big risks. "We're looking for science at the grassroots level," said Corey Goodman, the Pfizer executive overseeing the collaboration. Goodman, a noted neurobiologist who has co-founded two Bay-area biotech companies, was tapped by Pfizer late last year to head its new Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center, a freestanding unit that has since recruited innovative biotech companies into a research "federation."
Like other big pharma companies, Pfizer is scrambling to find new products to replace its older blockbuster medicines that are going off patent. Goodman is extending the Center's reach to academic scientists with high-potential ideas that are in danger of stagnating because government grant budgets have tightened and VC firms have become more risk-averse. Pfizer started negotiations about six months ago with UCSF and its unit at QB3, the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences. QB3 Director Regis Kelly said the collaboration is an unusual model in that it opens the door to ideas proposed by academic researchers, unlike the typical contracts for narrowly defined research projects. At least three research groups are already eager to get started, Goodman said. UCSF and Pfizer scientists met in brainstorming sessions to explore mutual areas of interest while terms of the deal were still being negotiated. The Pfizer collaboration will also offer opportunities to researchers at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, which are member campuses of QB3. Scientists and their universities will retain patent rights to any inventions discovered under the Pfizer grants, but Pfizer will have the right to negotiate licenses. Go to: The San Francisco Chronicle
or http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/09/BUA9114QQD.DTL
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