Pfizer Inc. announced that it will partner with University of California, San Diego Health Sciences through the company’s Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI), a network of collaborative partnerships with top-tier life science research institutions in California, Massachusetts and New York that aims to accelerate and transform drug discovery and development.

Pfizer anticipates a potential investment of up to $50 million over the next five years. This sum is a total of the estimated support for research programmes and potential milestone payments to UC San Diego Health Sciences for successful projects. The partnership includes dedicated lab space at Pfizer’s La Jolla research and development campus for scientists from Pfizer and UC San Diego Health Sciences to work closely together.

Pfizer established its first CTI in California in November 2010 through a partnership with the University of California, San Francisco. Pfizer will now expand its CTI West Coast presence to southern California through a collaboration with UC San Diego Health Sciences.

“The collaborative partnerships formed through the Centers for Therapeutic Innovation between Pfizer and academic medical centers 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,” said Jose Carlos Gutierrez-Ramos, Ph.D, senior vice president and head of BioTherapeutics Research and Development for Pfizer. “Our ultimate goal is to bridge the gap between scientific discovery and the delivery of promising candidates to the pipeline.”

CTI differs from other open innovation programmes in its unique, non-traditional business model that is based on true collaboration, co-location and transparency, with generous incentives to its participants. As part of the CTI programme, Pfizer will provide access to some of its antibody libraries and technologies, as well as dedicated resources and support from Pfizer’s experts in drug development and protein sciences.

Additionally, Pfizer will provide funding to support the pre-clinical and clinical development of sponsored programmes, offer CTI partners equitable intellectual property rights, and grant milestone payments and royalties related to the advancement of drug candidates.

“Public-private partnerships are increasingly important in scientific research, especially in an era of decreasing federal grant support when resources are needed to commercialize innovations related to health care,” said Gary Firestein, MD, dean and associate vice chancellor of Translational Medicine and director of the Clinical and Translational Research Institute at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. “The UC San Diego-Pfizer agreement is an example of how we can work together and will hopefully serve as a model for other collaborations with industry.”

“We believe the Centers for Therapeutic Innovation are an industry-leading model of collaboration and innovation,” said Anthony J. Coyle, Ph.D., vice president and chief scientific officer, Pfizer Centers for Therapeutic Innovation. “UC San Diego Health Sciences, with its wealth of scientific and medical expertise, is an outstanding academic medical institution that Pfizer is excited to partner with to develop the next generation of medicines.”

“Congratulations to Pfizer and UC San Diego Health Sciences on this innovative public-private partnership,” said San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. “Collaborations like this one are what fuels San Diego’s life science ecosystem and makes San Diego an ideal place to invest, work and live.”