BioCentury
ARTICLE | Company News

Pfizer, CCFA partner to fund IBD research

August 21, 2014 12:35 AM UTC

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America will fund up to four academic projects focused on developing small molecules to treat Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. A committee comprising members from the not-for-profit and from the pharma's Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) initiative will select the projects. The organizations will split costs equally, but aren't disclosing how much total funding they will provide for the projects. Pfizer established a similarly structured partnership with the Alliance for Lupus Research in 2012.

Pfizer launched the CTI initiative in 2010 to partner with academic medical centers. According to CTI's website, Pfizer typically takes joint ownership of IP rights in CTI-backed projects and provides milestone payments and royalties for successful programs (see SciBX: Science-Business eXchange, Dec. 2, 2010). ...