04.10.2007 13:00:00
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Dr. Martin Mackay Named President of Pfizer Global Research and Development
Pfizer today named Dr. Martin Mackay as President of Pfizer Global
Research and Development (PGRD); launched an independent, stand-alone
biotherapeutics and bioinnovation center under the direction of
scientist and entrepreneur Dr. Corey Goodman; and named Dr. Briggs
Morrison, who held senior research and development positions at Merck,
as its new Head of Clinical Development for the PGRD pipeline.
"As the leader of PGRD, Martin Mackay will
bring Pfizer’s talent, drug discovery and
development experience, capital and technology to bear on increasing the
value of our near-term pipeline and bringing new compounds forward to
approval,” said Jeff Kindler, Chairman and
chief executive officer. "Martin will drive
changes in PGRD’s goals, performance
measurements, allocation of resources, culture and leadership so that
Pfizer delivers a steady stream of new medicines that represent
compelling value to our customers and payers.” "We are also today launching a new
biotherapeutics and bioinnovation center with a unique structure to
discover, license and acquire more new product candidates that we can
put into development,” said Mr. Kindler. "With
this strategy, we are leveraging Pfizer’s
excellence in drug discovery and development by complementing it with a
distinct, California-based enterprise led by world-class scientists
charged with discovering and bringing in new compounds,”
he added.
Kindler continued, "Corey Goodman, a member
of the National Academy of Sciences, enjoys the highest respect of the
worldwide scientific community and brings to Pfizer broad experience
with leading scientific institutions as well as the venture and biotech
community. He will lead a center that uses advanced applications of cell
biology and cutting-edge technologies, sources the best science wherever
we find it, and bridges the gap between basic research and drug
discovery.”
The center will focus on discovering new medicines as well as securing
new technologies and research tools that can be used across all of Pfizer’s
therapeutic areas. It will work in a highly collaborative manner both
with PGRD and with the academic, biotech and venture communities, not
only to focus on delivering new compounds for Pfizer but also on
incubating start-ups with new innovative technologies. Dr. Goodman will
report to Mr. Kindler and become a member of Pfizer’s
Executive Leadership Team.
As the new head of PGRD, Dr. Mackay will also report to Mr. Kindler and
join the Pfizer Executive Leadership Team. Dr. Mackay has developed and
will pursue a five-point plan to maximize PGRD’s
contribution to Pfizer’s growth:
1. Bring to the market as quickly as possible the rich Phase II
portfolio as well as the Phase III pipeline compounds, and add
value through label enhancements, line extensions, additional
indications and product combinations;
2. Focus PGRD's resources on the compounds and disease areas that
represent the best opportunities, and work with Pfizer's business
development to secure external products and platforms in those
priority areas;
3. Become a top-tier company in biotherapeutics by aggressively
advancing our existing 25 pre-clinical and clinical programs in
priority areas such as oncology, immunology and pain, and working
in partnership with the new biotherapeutics and bioinnovation
center and pursuing other strategic external opportunities;
4. Dramatically raise the bar on PGRD productivity - with recent
organizational changes now nearing completion, set new aggressive
targets for productivity and efficiency and insist on clear
accountability for achieving those goals; and
5. Pursue the best science outside PGRD's walls through collaborative
opportunities with academia and the medical and biotech community
in order to secure access to cutting-edge technologies, new biology
and modes of action to supplement and enhance Pfizer's internal
capabilities. 1. Aggressively advance the late stage portfolio
Dr. Mackay said that "with 47 compounds in
Phase II across a number of very promising therapeutic areas, we have
the opportunity to have more Phase III starts next year than at any time
in our history, and my goal is to achieve that milestone.”
To support this critical objective, Dr. Mackay announced that Dr. Briggs
Morrison, most recently Senior Vice President of Research Planning and
Integration at Merck Research Laboratories and previously head of Global
Clinical Development Operations, will join Pfizer as Senior Vice
President for Clinical Development. Dr. Morrison will be responsible for
the clinical development of all compounds in Pfizer’s
portfolio, and he will play a key role in implementing strategies to
advance key compounds to approval. He will report to Dr. Mackay, join
the PGRD Leadership Team and have the therapeutic area development group
heads reporting to him, as well as the head of clinical, quantitative
and innovative medicine.
"The hiring of Briggs Morrison reflects an
acceleration of our focus on the broad array of candidates in our late
stage pipeline,” said Dr. Mackay. "Briggs
is a senior executive who has experience with innovative new approaches
to drug development and commercialization and played an important role
in the transformation of Merck’s clinical
development operations. He is ideally suited to overseeing our worldwide
clinical development and driving our late-stage candidates to market as
speedily as possible.” 2. Invest in the best opportunities
Over the past several months, Dr. Mackay together with Pfizer’s
leaders of commercial operations, has led a comprehensive review of the
disease areas in which Pfizer conducts research and development in light
of a rapidly changing marketplace and what customers expect from new
medicines.
"Given the critical need to deliver new and
valuable products from our pipeline as fast as possible, I will
immediately embark on a systematic review of all of our R&D investments
to ensure that we prioritize allocation of funds to our most promising
programs,” said Dr. Mackay.
In addition, PGRD will work closely with Pfizer Business Development to
secure the best external opportunities in targeted areas through
acquisitions, licensing and development, joint venture and alliances and
other collaborative agreements.
3. Become a top-tier company in biotherapeutics
PGRD will work in partnership with the new biotherapeutics center led by
Dr. Goodman and continue to build a strong presence in biotherapeutics
across research, pharmaceutical sciences and development to establish a
top-tier position in biotherapeutics.
Pfizer will aggressively advance the 25 pre-clinical and clinical
programs already in its development pipeline, as well as a range of
external opportunities, including those developed by the new
biotherapeutics and bioinnovation center. Within PGRD, as well as in the
new independent center, Pfizer will continue to make investments to
substantially expand biotherapeutics capabilities.
4. "Dramatically raise the bar”
on PGRD productivity "We are currently in the final stages of a
business transformation program at PGRD, and our goal is to bring these
changes to a conclusion with a minimum of disruption, realize their
benefits, and then move forward with four major research sites, global
platform lines and a very focused drug development team,”
said Mr. Kindler. "Under Martin’s
strong leadership and follow-up throughout this process, we have made
important progress in streamlining PGRD, consolidating our therapeutic
areas, and moving a substantial portion of our investments from bricks
and mortar into research and development.” "It is a remarkable reflection on our
colleagues that we have maintained productivity over this period,”
added Dr. Mackay. "In fact, we have completed
the transfer of all R&D projects and have relocated hundreds of
scientists to other sites. The plans to rapidly develop our late stage
pipeline have been put in place and we see good progress on that
critical imperative. But we can, and will, dramatically raise the bar on
PGRD productivity and establish crystal-clear accountability for meeting
our goals. We will move from periodic restructurings to a much more
systematic approach of continuous improvement that will put us in the
best position to accelerate our productivity gains and speed new
medicines to the market. We will take our therapeutic area structure --
which is proving to be highly productive -- to the next level by giving
those teams greater flexibility and even more opportunities to create
value.” 5. Pursue the best science outside our walls
PGRD will seek ways to expand its collaborations with the biotech,
academic and biomedical communities to ensure that the best new
technology and product candidates get rapidly translated into exciting
new therapies and new medicines. Pfizer's Business Development team will
work with PGRD to acquire, license and partner on the most important
technologies and product candidates. At the same time, Pfizer is
actively identifying new discovery partnerships in specific areas and
finding opportunities for broad-based collaborations such as the Scripps
Institute alliance.
"We began this endeavor in earnest last year
with the establishment of our alliance with Scripps and our incubator in
La Jolla.” said Dr. Mackay. "The
collaboration is simply outstanding and the partnership between Pfizer
and Scripps scientists is inspirational. Moreover, our incubator is
already bearing fruit in terms of new pre-clinical candidates and
research tools. We are looking to create more such partnerships and
incubators, and we look forward to working closely with our new
biotherapeutics and bioinnovation center to create additional alliances
and incubators in California and elsewhere,”
he added.
Goals of Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center
Pfizer’s new biotherapeutics and
bioinnovation center, with Dr. Corey Goodman as President, will be based
in the San Francisco Bay area and will combine cutting-edge biology, new
platform technologies, and advanced research tools to discover and
develop new medicines. This new venture is a significant departure for
Pfizer and the pharmaceutical industry. Located in one of the hubs of
biotechnology, the Center will have the entrepreneurial spirit of
biotech and collaborate broadly with the academic, biotech, and venture
communities to focus on discovering and developing new medicines.
Dr. Goodman commented, "The Center will be
built on a new model, capturing the best of both the biotech and
pharmaceutical worlds. On the one hand, the Center will be independent,
able to pursue its own research interests, free to establish its own
distinct culture, and empowered to recruit entrepreneurial scientists.
However, what makes this model unique is the ability of the Center to
leverage all of the vast strengths of PGRD, for example, gaining access
to high-throughput screening and pharmaceutical science capabilities,
exchanging knowledge and tools, working closely with PGRD’s
biotherapeutics teams, and handing off new drug candidates to PGRD for
late-stage clinical development. Martin and I will work closely together
to assure that technology and capability flow freely between PGRD and
the new Center.”
Dr. Goodman continued, "Biological innovation
is exploding. There is so much to explore in terms of new targets and
new technologies. With our collaborative and entrepreneurial model, we
will be in the best position to find promising new targets, technologies
and tools externally, to discover them organically, and to leverage them
with the scale and know-how of PGRD so as to turn them into potential
new medicines. While we will be focused on biotherapeutics, we will look
for any innovative technology in any area that will help develop new
medicines. We will be in the center of the California biotech and
venture community, in the midst of some of the greatest biomedical
research institutions, and will work to attract outstanding scientific
talent, to seek collaborations, and to build incubators at this very
exciting time for biological discovery. Martin and I share this vision
with Jeff and will work together to provide Pfizer’s
development team with innovative new product candidates.” "I am confident that our new biotherapeutics
and bioinnovation center is exactly what we need to take a major step
forward in one of the key areas for our future growth, and I very much
look forward to working with Corey and Martin on this new endeavor,”
said Mr. Kindler.
Biographical Backgrounds Dr. Martin Mackay
Before today’s announcement, Dr. Mackay was
Vice President of Pfizer Global R&D and Senior Vice President of
Worldwide Development, where he oversaw 6,500 Pfizer colleagues across
clinical development, development operations, pharmaceutical sciences,
drug safety and project and portfolio management as well as 11
therapeutic areas. He began his career at Pfizer in 1995 as Director of
Discovery Biology in the U.K. and held positions of increasing
responsibility until he moved to the United States in 1999 to become
Senior Vice President, Worldwide Discovery. He was named Senior Vice
President, Head of Worldwide Research and Technology in 2003. Dr. Mackay
earned a Microbiology First Class Honors Degree at Heriot-Watt
University and a PhD in Molecular Genetics at the University of
Edinburgh in 1983. He conducted his postdoctoral research fellowship in
malaria vaccines and worked in the research divisions of other European
pharmaceutical companies before joining Pfizer.
Dr. Corey Goodman
Dr. Goodman co-founded two biotech companies, Exelixis and Renovis, and
served as the Chief Executive Officer of Renovis. He was a professor of
biology at Stanford University for eight years and a professor of
neurobiology and genetics at the University of California Berkley for 18
years, where he remains on the faculty. At Berkeley, Dr. Goodman was the
Evan Rauch Professor of Neuroscience, the Director and co-founder of the
Wills Neuroscience Institute, and an Investigator with the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute. He received a B.S. in Biology from Stanford and a
Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the University of California, Berkeley. He
was a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow in Developmental
Neurobiology at the University of California San Diego. Dr. Goodman was
elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Amongst his many
scientific honors are the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National
Science Board, the Gairdner Foundation International Award for
Achievement in Medical Sciences, and the March-of-Dimes Prize in
Developmental Biology. Dr. Goodman was Chair of the National Research
Council’s Board of Life Sciences from 2001 to
2006, and is Vice President of the McKnight Endowment Fund for
Neuroscience. He also serves on the California Council of Science and
Technology.
Dr. Briggs Morrison
Dr. Morrison joined Merck in 1995 and served in senior research and
clinical data management positions, including as Executive Director and
Vice President for all Clinical Data Management Operations, where he was
responsible for all clinical data management across the entire research
portfolio. He was on a special assignment from 2004-2006 to review and
enhance the effectiveness of Merck’s research
operations. He was most recently Vice President, Clinical Sciences,
Oncology where he oversaw all clinical trials and activities for Merck’s
oncology pipeline. He received a B.S. in Biology from Georgetown
University and holds an M.D. from the University of Connecticut School
of Medicine. He has been a Fellow in Clinical Oncology at the
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an instructor in medicine at the
Harvard Medical School.
DISCLOSURE NOTICE: The information contained in this release is as of
October 4, 2007. The Company assumes no obligation to update any
forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new
information or future events or developments. This release contains forward-looking information about the Company’s
research and development activities that involves substantial risks and
uncertainties. A description of these risks and uncertainties can be
found in the Company’s Annual Report on Form
10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006 and in its reports on
Forms 10-Q and 8-K.
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