Sector News

Pfizer axing neuroscience jobs, but seeks new VC fund

January 9, 2018
Life sciences

Big Pharma Pfizer, on the eve of J.P. Morgan, the biggest biopharma dating event on the year, will cut around 300 jobs and a number of earlier stage projects from its neuroscience pipeline.

The move will see it back out of work in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, two notoriously difficult areas for the industry, especially the former, which has not seen any real R&D advance in 15 years.

In a statement on Friday, Pfizer said it will be redirecting funds “to those areas where we have strong scientific leadership and that will allow us to provide the greatest impact for patients,” adding that its total spending on R&D will not change, which amounted to around $8 billion last year.

The ax will fall predominately in Cambridge and Andover, Massachusetts, and in Groton, Connecticut, with about 100 expected at each site.

Those projects up for the chop are preclinical, early and midstage clinical programs primarily focused on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, but Pfizer could outlicense these, or cofund them, through venture investments.

It has a host of meds in these areas, including a phase 2 dopamine 1 activator for Parkinson’s, as well as four phase 1 Alzheimer’s drugs that include PF-05251749 and PF-06648671, a γ-secretase modulator.

This comes after many other Big Pharmas, and smaller biotechs, have failed to move the needle on Alzheimer’s disease drugs in R&D, making ROI on these types of projects precisely zero.

The changes will not hit work on its pain treatments Lyrica and tanezumab, or research into drugs for rare neurological diseases, the Big Pharma stressed.

But the company did say it will set up a neuroscience venture fund “to support continued efforts to advance the field,” although details were not shared. More should come of this later in the year, it adds, and will be focused on external projects.

By Ben Adams

Source: Fierce Biotech

comments closed

Related News

March 24, 2024

Johnson Matthey to sell its Medical Devices business for $700 million

Life sciences

Johnson Matthey Plc (JM; London) announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell 100% of its Medical Device Components business (MDC) to Montagu Private Equity (Montagu) for cash consideration of US$700 million (£550 million) on a cash free debt free basis.

March 24, 2024

Lonza acquires biologics manufacturing plant in California from Roche

Life sciences

Lonza AG (Basel, Switzerland) announced it has signed an agreement to acquire the Genentech large-scale biologics manufacturing site in Vacaville, Calif. from Roche (Basel, Switzerland) for $1.2 billion. The acquisition will significantly increase Lonza’s large-scale biologics manufacturing capacity.

March 24, 2024

Roquette to acquire IFF Pharma Solutions to boost global excipient presence

Life sciences

Roquette plans to acquire International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) Pharma Solutions for an enterprise value of up to €2.85 billion (US$3.09 billion). With the acquisition set to close in the first half of 2025, the plant-based ingredient and pharmaceutical excipients supplier aims to reinforce its position in the pharmaceutical industry.

How can we help you?

We're easy to reach