This week the world’s largest pharmaceutical giant in terms of revenue, Pfizer, welcomed Boston into its network of translational research partnerships, called the Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI). Boston joins various locations in California and New York City.

Jose Carlos Gutierrez-Ramos, Ph.D, senior vice president and head of BioTherapeutics Research and Development for Pfizer explains:

“The Centers for Therapeutic Innovation is a network of partnerships between Pfizer and academic medical centers that aims to accelerate and transform drug discovery and development. These partnerships allow leading medical and clinical experts to join with Pfizer’s highly-skilled scientists and advanced drug development capabilities to speed the translation of innovative science into medicines for patients. Our ultimate goal is to bridge the gap between scientific discovery and the delivery of promising candidates to the pipeline.”

Pfizer anticipates investing approximately $100 million in the Boston Centers for Therapeutic Innovation over the next five years. This sum is a total of the estimated support for research programs, potential milestone payments to partners for successful projects.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino commented:

“Pfizer has chosen the perfect location for its new Center for Therapeutic Innovation. Boston is leading the life sciences revolution because of the collaboration that happens between our prestigious medical, academic and research institutions. The City is committed to supporting this industry because of the critical role drug discovery plays in our society. We couldn’t be happier that Pfizer is further expanding its presence in Massachusetts to tap into all that Longwood Medical area has to offer.”

During the first 10 years of this century, progress in biology and other fields relevant to pharmaceutical innovation has been revolutionary. Innovative science has the potential to radically change the way we treat disease, but it typically takes a long time and requires significant financial investment for novel findings to be translated into testable clinical hypotheses. The pervasiveness of the gap between early science and translation into clinical applications presents an opportunity for industry and academia to collaborate in an unprecedented manner through the CTI. The CTI focus is on biotherapeutic modalities (antibodies, peptides, proteins) across all therapeutic areas.

Pfizer also announced that it has signed a lease for laboratory space at the Center for Life Science in the Longwood Medical Area, where it will co-locate with its academic medical center partners. This $100 million sum will include the cost to lease and operate the planned site in the Longwood Medical Area. The lab space located inside the Center for Life Science Boston will serve as the world headquarters of Pfizer’s Centers for Therapeutic Innovation, in addition to the existing offices in Cambridge.

Anthony Coyle, Ph.D., vice president – Pfizer Centers for Therapeutic Innovation adds:

“We believe the Centers for Therapeutic Innovation are an industry-leading model of collaboration and innovation. Boston, with its wealth of scientific and medical expertise, is well-suited to serve as headquarters for CTI. We are excited to work with these outstanding academic medical institutions with the objective of developing the next generation of medicines.”

Also down south, six other New York City research-based medical centers will be part of the CTI network: New York University Langone Medical Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Mount Sinai Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center, Weill Cornell Medical College and Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva Hospital. Eventually, Pfizer plans to extend the network to other U.S. based medical institutions and to Europe and Asia.

Source: Pfizer

Written by Sy Kraft