RALEIGH, N.C. & WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BioPontis Alliance, LLC, announced today at the 2011 BIO International Convention in Washington DC that it has entered into a Translational Technology Development agreement with Pfizer Inc. The agreement is an element of BioPontis Alliance’s unique business model which combines translational drug research with its own asset based investment fund. Pfizer is the second leading pharmaceutical company to join the alliance structure at BioPontis Alliance, which is a first-in-kind vehicle for capturing innovative science from academia and doing the necessary work to potentially translate discoveries into drug candidates for further development by pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer.
BioPontis Alliance has established research alliances with a group of the nation’s leading academic research institutes, in which BioPontis Alliance searches for innovative science that has the potential to be translated into new treatments for cancer, neurology, inflammation and infectious diseases. BioPontis Alliance currently has agreements with a consortium of leading universities and research institutions including New York University, Columbia University, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), University of Virginia and University of Florida.
“The gap between early science and translation into clinical applications presents an opportunity for industry and academia to collaborate in an unprecedented manner,” says Uwe Schoenbeck, Chief Scientific Officer for External R&D at Pfizer. “We at Pfizer are committed to establishing productive relationships with academic scientists, and the BioPontis agreement complements other innovation initiatives at Pfizer, such as our Centers for Therapeutic Innovation. We are excited to have the opportunity to work alongside BioPontis Alliance as they conduct critical translational research and development on promising new science.”
Under the agreement, Pfizer will provide guidance on the BioPontis Alliance product portfolio to help ensure that BioPontis Alliance’s investment in particular development programs is in alignment with clinical need and market demand. Pfizer will have the opportunity to provide BioPontis Alliance with scientific and medical advice on the design of experiments and the product profile needed for a successful product development strategy. In addition, Pfizer will have an opportunity to evaluate and license early-stage therapeutic opportunities.
“The rapidly changing pharmaceutical development market is recognizing BioPontis Alliance as a leading new enterprise for efficiently translating academic discovery science into technologies validated for clinical development that target cancer, neurologic, inflammation and infectious diseases,“ according to Barbara Handelin PhD, BioPontis Alliance President. “We are excited to have Pfizer as a partner of BioPontis Alliance, who along with Merck, will help as we continue to expand the development bridge between our academic partner inventors and the patients that rely upon translational research for improved health outcomes.”
About BioPontis Alliance:
BioPontis Alliance LLC is an asset based investment capital fund combined with a research and development company, created in 2009 to address a growing crisis in how the biopharmaceutical industry sources innovative therapeutic products having a validated scientific basis. BioPontis Alliance operates out of the Research Triangle Park, Mid-Atlantic (Philadelphia), and Tri-State regions (NY, NJ, and CT). BioPontis Alliance is committed to changing legacy structures and methods that have limited the productivity of the biomedical research engine in improving healthcare outcomes with important scientific discoveries.