Pfizer Inks Diabetes Discovery Collaboration With Sanford-Burnham
This article was originally published in The Pink Sheet Daily
Executive Summary
The New York-based pharma continues to delve further into the diabetes research space despite not currently having a commercial presence in the therapeutic area. Pfizer’s latest tie-up will help it identify targets that could be used in the treatment of diabetes and obesity.
Pfizer Inc. is continuing to explore innovation in diabetes treatment with a three-year research collaboration with Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in Orlando. The big pharma made its first major foray into what is a new therapeutic area for it earlier this year when it unveiled a Phase III development deal with rival Merck & Co. Inc.
The pharma-institute tie-up, announced Aug. 13, will focus on identifying targets and compounds that interfere with the accumulation of fat in muscle cells in hopes of finding new treatments for diabetes and obesity. Research has shown that abnormalities in lipid metabolism in muscle are associated with insulin resistance. As fat accumulates in muscle tissue, it becomes insulin-resistant and glucose is not cleared effectively from the blood.
This will be the science driving the research conducted under the three-year collaboration, said Stephen Gardell, senior director of scientific resources at Sanford-Burnham. There is potential for further work to be conducted beyond the three-year time frame, he added.
Neither party would disclose the financial arrangements surrounding the deal, but Pfizer will be funding all the research efforts. Work will be conducted in both Pfizer's labs as well as at Sanford-Burnham. Decision-making within the collaboration largely will be decentralized and research decisions will be made separately in each lab with the two organizations meeting regularly for updates as well as to decide on next steps. All intellectual property will remain with the organization making the discovery, with any joint-invented IP being jointly owned.
Researchers will use systems-biology approaches and screening technologies developed by Sanford-Burnham’s Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics. The center will screen targets using investigational compounds from Pfizer as well as evaluate previously identified compounds from the NIH chemical library. The collaborators then will use targets and compounds of interest to study the underlying mechanisms of action responsible for lipotoxicity within cells.
The Prebys Center houses Sanford-Burnham’s screening facilities and was established to accelerate the rate of commercialization of basic research. Its drug-discovery capabilities include ultra-high-throughput screening, high-content screening, phenotypic screening and target deconvolution technologies.
“We hope that this will identify novel targets for approaching this debilitating disease, but at this stage we cannot predict where the science will take us,” said Tim Rolph, VP and head of the cardiovascular and metabolic diseases research unit at Pfizer in an e-mail.
Gardell called the deal a “win-win” for both parties, allowing Sanford-Burnham to diversify its revenue stream while Pfizer capitalizes on the institute’s expertise in the field. The institute and Pfizer had been in discussions for a number of years before the collaboration resulted. In 2011, the two entities teamed up – Sanford-Burnham with Pfizer’s Centers for Therapeutic Excellence – in a collaboration allowing the institute to use CTE resources and gain access to some of Pfizer’s compound libraries in an effort to speed up the screening and drug-discovery process.
Pfizer Eyes Diabetes Market
The diabetes landscape has been heating up of late as more companies try to gain a foothold in the growing market. As the world’s population ages and more people struggle with obesity, the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes has become an increasingly lucrative business seeming to offer room for multiple entrants (Also see "ADA 2013: Major Players Present Data On Insulins, GLP-1s, SGLT-2s" - Pink Sheet, 20 Jun, 2013.).
This is the institute’s second large collaboration in the metabolic disease space with a major pharma player – earlier this year Sanford-Burnham renewed a deal with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. that focuses on developing new obesity therapeutics [See Deal].
In late April, Pfizer announced that it has teamed with Merck to collaborate on the development and commercialization of ertugliflozin, a sodium glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitor (SGLT-2) advanced to Phase III-ready status by Pfizer. Merck already has paid $60 million to Pfizer in upfront and milestone payments. The total value of the deal was not disclosed, but Merck will be responsible for further payments to Pfizer. The New Jersey-based pharma will pay a majority of the costs, but also will garner the majority of the profits from worldwide sales (excluding Japan) in a 60%/40% split (Also see "Merck And Pfizer Make A Late Play For The Diabetes Market" - Pink Sheet, 29 Apr, 2013.).
Pfizer currently has no diabetes drugs on the market through its primary care business, but has several compounds in Phase I and II. Ertugliflozin was developed internally by Pfizer in its cardiovascular and metabolic diseases research unit at Groton, Conn.