In a novel experiment to stimulate basic research and advance new drug discovery and development, the pharma major Pfizer and UCSF have formed an alliance for a period of three years. During this period, with research and other support up to $9.5 million, Pfizer and UCSF would establish a university team to help identify promising areas of mutual interest and facilitate project management.

Under the agreement, UCSF and Pfizer will perform collaborative research that would enable innovative computational and structure based approaches to develop monoclonal antibody based therapeutics for important disease targets.

Besides, the Pfizer-UCSF agreement is expected to encourage collaborations between the company and UCSF's unit of QB3, the multi campus California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, headquartered at UCSF. The effort will be managed by QB3.

A company press release said that Corey Goodman, president of Pfizer's Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Centre (BBC), would lead the collaboration for the company. The BBC, a newly-formed division of Pfizer, is a small, entrepreneurial business unit created to build the technology platforms expected to deliver a steady pipeline of biotherapeutics and to stimulate such grassroots collaborations.

Referring to the need and advantages of this collaboration, Corey Goodman said, "The need to find better ways to bridge the gap between biomedical research and drug discovery could not be more acute. The great discoveries from basic research must be better translated to develop new medicines for unmet medical needs. This new approach captures the best of both biotech and pharmaceutical worlds - and it benefits everyone: Pfizer, the university, patients and public health".

"This collaboration allows our scientists to interact in a grassroots way to advance basic scientific findings that have potential biomedical application. I am confident that this will provide tremendous benefit for Pfizer, for UCSF and for the health of society," he added.

On the other end, at QB3, Daniel Santi, UCSF professor of pharmaceutical chemistry and co-founder and former CEO of the biotech company Kosan, would manage the alliance. QB3 involves 180 university scientists at the three UC campuses, collaborating on research with each other and with biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Its goals are to speed the translation of basic research discoveries into diagnostics, drugs and other treatments.

UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.