PFIZER’S DOORS OPEN TO AUSTRALIAN BIOTECH
May 19th 2008 01:43
Friday May 16, 2008
Daily news on ASX-listed biotechnology companies
* ASX UP, BIOTECHS EVEN: CYTOPIA UP 11%; PRANA DOWN 9%
* PFIZER’S DOORS OPEN TO AUSTRALIAN BIOTECH
* HEARTWARE MOVES BACK TO US, TRAINS 1st CENTRE, COO RESIGNS
* BENITEC TO RAISE $5.1m FOR PROGRAMS, IP PROTECTION
* HEALTHLINX RAISES $511k OF EXPECTED $4m
* STEM CELL AGM DISSENT ON SHARE SCHEME, REELECTS DIRECTORS
* CYTOPIA CYT997 ABSTRACT AVAILABLE ON-LINE
* RITRACT REINSTATED
* LIM SEN YAP TAKES 13% OF ARANA
THE MARKET
Fifteen of the Biotech Daily Top 40 stocks were up, 15 fell, seven traded unchanged and three were untraded.
Cytopia was best, up three cents or 11.11 percent to 30 cents on small volumes, followed by Mesoblast up 6.5 cents or 10.0 percent to 71.5 cents and Genetic Technologies up 10.0 percent to 11 cents.
Prana led the falls down four cents or 8.99 percent to 40.5 cents on modest volumes, followed by Tissue Therapies down one cent or 7.14 percent to 13 cents.
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PFIZER, BIO-MELBOURNE NETWORK
Pfizer has told Australian biotechnology companies that it is interested in partnering across a range of therapies from early to late stage.
Pfizer’s senior vice-president of worldwide clinical development Dr Briggs Morrison told a capacity Bio-Melbourne Network breakfast that Pfizer had developed a new model for partnering that was a “federation of independent biotech and research and development biotech units” that were independent but interdependent.
He said Pfizer had created a its Biotherapeutic and Bioinnovation Centre program and said “the heart of the company really is its science”.
Dr Morrison said that with about 400 projects at the research stage and 200 at the development stage, Pfizer’s $7.5 billion spend in 2007 was more than any other company’s.
Dr Morrison nominated ophthalmology, central nervous system, cardio-vascular, allergy and respiratory, sexual health and urology, pain and inflammation, oncology and infectious diseases as Pfizer’s key areas and said the company wanted to be either the first in class or best in class, and intended to invest to win with a particular emphasis on high unmet medical needs.
He said “basic research knows no geographical boundaries” and that Pfizer had 10,000 clinical trial sites in more than 70 countries.
Dr Morrison said Pfizer had an “incubation” program whereby small companies could use its laboratory space.
Pfizer’s head of strategic alliances Dr Daniel Grant said there were three or four companies using the incubation program with capacity for up to 10 companies.
Dr Grant said the company had a worldwide business development program; an Asia research and development program; and an Australian alliance program and wanted “to engage with academics and research groups”.
About 50 percent of Pfizer’s compounds are externally sourced and Dr Grant said the company wanted “to launch two new externally sourced drugs each year”.
He said Pfizer was not building any more research facilities in Asia but supported ”a virtual research and development network of academics, biotechs and contract research organizations partnering across Asia”.
Dr Grant said Pfizer provided funds for grants and fellowships in Australia and conducted 60 to 80 clinical trials in Australia each year.
He said the fellowship program had generated 200 peer-reviewed papers in six years.
Dr Grant said Pfizer would provide $15 million over three years for cancer research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
Under the heading “What are we interested in” he said drug candidates from early to late stage; platform technologies; enabling technologies; and expansion into new business models.
Dr Grant joked that there was a preference for drugs in late phase III trials ready for registration, but said Pfizer was interested across its key areas from very early to late stage development.
He said Pfizer was interested “in anything innovative in any of nine therapeutic areas.
Dr Morrison said Pfizer was interested in personalized medicine to both fit the right drug for the right person, but also to resolve problems of toxicity, “so we can determine who shouldn’t get a medicine”.
Dr Grant said Pfizer was in discussions on “a large deal with a group in Melbourne on stem cells for therapeutic purposes” through its Biotherapeutic and Bioinnovation Center program.
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