American Pharmaceutical Firm to Aid Israelis Developing Personalized Medicine Drugs

A major American pharmaceutical company has signed a multi-year agreement to collaborate with an Israeli drug development center in the discovery and development of drugs for personalized medicine.

The Weizmann Institute of Science (Rehovot, Israel) and its commercial arm, Yeda Research and Development Co., Ltd. (Rehovot, Israel), have entered into a multi-year arrangement with the American pharmaceuticals conglomerate Pfizer Inc. (New York, NY, USA).

Under the terms of the agreement Pfizer will place a medicinal chemist at the Weizmann Institute to assist with advancing target selection and high-throughput screening, as well as leading development campaigns for programs within the framework of the newly established National Drug Discovery Institute in the Nancy and Stephen Grand Israel National Center for Personalized Medicine.

Pfizer and Yeda will jointly evaluate the potential for additional agreements to promote development of drugs to address unmet medical needs.

“We are very pleased to collaborate with Pfizer, and to work side-by-side with its scientists in our new national center, to build a world-class discovery and medicinal chemistry organization,” said Dr. Berta Strulovici, head of the Nancy and Stephen Grand Israel National Center for Personalized Medicine at the Weizmann Institute of Science. “We welcome Pfizer’s commitment to scientific discovery, and we are excited to host Pfizer scientists on campus and to broaden the potential impact of our joint efforts and common aim to discover new medicines that may benefit patients around the world.”

“This is an exciting partnership for Pfizer,” said Mikael Dolsten, president of Pfizer Global Research, “We have interacted with the Weizmann Institute for many years and have confidence in their scientific vision and expertise. We anticipate that this arrangement could potentially result in meaningful discoveries in the coming years. We look forward to working with many Israeli scientists and to seeing the outcomes of this effort.”

Related Links:
Weizmann Institute of Science
Yeda Research and Development Co.
Pfizer