The downsizing solution

How will this affect the clinic? Julia Puppe spoke with Annette Doherty, Head of Research and Site Leader, Sandwich Laboratories, Pfizer Global R&D to find out.

NGP. What are the main reasons behind the decision to run the company differently?

AD. The changes we are currently making across Pfizer are in response to some significant challenges facing the business now and in the near future. These include ones we have obviously known about for some time, like generic competition to Lipitor and the expiry of its patent in 2011. The harder challenges to plan for are those you cannot predict, such as the loss of torcetrapib in late stage clinical trials, which was a surprise and a disappointment, and the growing pricing pressures the industry faces across the globe. Combined, these factors meant we needed to make fundamental changes across the business.

NGP. One of Pfizer’s main priorities is to simplify the R&D organization. What effects will this have on Clinical R&D?

AD. In R&D, we are creating a smaller and more flexible organisation whilst maintaining the same level of investment in our science and the pipeline. The main change within the development organisation will see it restructured to support specific therapy areas, for example oncology or infectious diseases. This new model will see close collaboration between research, development and commercial leaders in each of our ten therapy areas. These therapy area leaders will have control and accountability for an overall strategy in their area.

In clinical R&D, there remains much to work on. We have our largest ever pipeline of drugs, which includes 18 compounds in advanced development or registration and more than 170 new molecular entities in early and mid-stage development. We need to move these forward so that we achieve our goal of delivering four new medicines per year starting in 2011.

NGP. Are you hopeful that the changes in R&D will contribute to failing drugs faster and if so, how?

AD. Absolutely, although this has been a priority for some time now and we have already made progress. It’s important to realise this business is high-risk and there will always be mid-late stage failures, but we have made progress by investing heavily in technologies that are enabling us to improve the quality of compounds entering development from research. The new therapy area model will facilitate closer working, improved information sharing and, ultimately, better and swifter decision making across Pfizer.

NGP. What other strategies are you implementing to fail drugs faster?

AD. Crucially, we are maintaining our level of R&D investment. This means we will be able to continue to invest in emerging technologies like pharmacogenomics, biomarkers, computational biology, systems biology, translational pharmacology and investigational toxicology – all of which are helping us to predict our chances of success more accurately and quickly. Weeding out drugs likely to fail as quickly as possible is a priority for all companies. It is essential for us because we have to find ways to fund the development of a large and increasing number of clinical programmes without busting our budget.

NGP. You are planning to exit discovery research in gastroenterology and dermatology. Why have you lost interest in these areas?

AD. We announced in January that we would exit gastrointestinal and dermatology research, although we will continue to work on compounds from these therapy areas that are already in development. We need to focus on programmes that address significant unmet medical need and which are underpinned by promising science that offers a chance of discovering and developing safe and effective new treatments.

NGP. Where will you be concentrating your efforts?

AD. We work in ten therapy areas, including oncology, neuroscience, infectious diseases and CV and metabolic conditions. In addition, we have recently returned to human vaccine development. We are already a major player in biotherapeutics, but plan to invest significantly in this area to increase the proportion of biotherapeutic candidates in our internal portfolio to 20 percent. Within the next 10 years, we could have one biotherapeutic launch per year, and we expect to see new vaccines, antibodies and other large molecules.

Another priority is building more third-party collaborations. These have always been important to Pfizer because we appreciate that excellent science lies inside and outside our own walls. We believe we have both a lot to learn from partners and a lot to offer.

Annette Doherty

After a degree and PhD in chemistry from Imperial College, Annette Doherty went to Ohio State University for a postdoc before joining the pharmaceutical industry. Today she is responsible for the productivity of Pfizer’s Sandwich Laboratories in the UK.

“The new therapy area model will facilitate closer working, improved information sharing and better and swifter decision making”