Collaborating against diabetes complications

Pfizer Inc.'s diabetes deal with the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute could help reverse a trend that has seen the pharma arriving late-or not at all-to the party with new targets for the indication. Indeed, the goal of the three-year collaboration is to identify and validate new drug targets to prevent and treat insulin resistance and organ damage in obesity-related diabetes.

The only diabetes drug in Pfizer's product line is Actos pioglitazone, a thiazolidinedione that the company co-markets with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. Actos came off patent in 2008, and in 2011, the FDA required the warnings section of the drug's label to state that use of pioglitazone for more than a year may be associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer...