R&D refocus for Pfizer

R&D refocusing

Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, has read itself the riot act this week by announcing that the firm's R&D efforts have "simple not been good enough." The admission has now led the firm to reveal a more focused approach to drive success.

The words come courtesy of Martin Mackay, Pfizer's head of research, at the FT Global Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology conference in London. According to Mackay, who will soon be president of the new pharmatherapeutics R&D division at the expanded Pfizer now that the Wyeth acquisition is complete, "[Pfizer] has not chosen the right targets often enough." Instead, he admits, the firm "went after everything”.

His admission might well be an honest one too, given that the company had been investigating 475 molecules in January 2007 and only "an appalling number worked," says Mackay.

Refocusing

Since then, of course, Pfizer has created smaller, more focused research teams and introduced single governance committees that simplify the decision-making process. The company is also engaging much more with academia and has made giant strides in extending its R&D network in Asia

Mackay also commented that we are now in a "golden age" of drug discovery, noting that the industry has never "had this many tools at its disposal." According to Mackay, these tools will allow Pfizer to gear its potential treatments for the right patient populations.

The head of research then gave the example of PF-02341066, "a new drug to treat advanced non-small cell lung cancer. A subset of NSCLC patients have been identified whose tumours carry a unique mutation and Pfizer will focus on this group in Phase III trials of the drug."

Pfizer is also looking to continue introducing co-licensing deals, such as the agreement it has in place with Bristol-Myers Squibb for oral anticoagulant apixaban.

Related Articles:

Pfizer's new look and R&D shake-up | M&A is not the new R&D

Like this article? Get the RSS feed: