The US drugmaker has used several insights from the CytoReason’ platform, in several of its R&D programmes across more than 20 diseases
Pfizer World Headquarters in Manhattan, New York. (Credit: Coolcaesar/Wikipedia)
US-based pharmaceutical firm Pfizer has extended its collaboration with CytoReason, a developer of computational disease models for drug discovery and development.
The two companies have initially entered into the collaboration in 2019.
Under the collaboration, Pfizer has leveraged CytoReason’s models in its research to enhance the understanding of the immune system for the development of new drugs.
The US drugmaker leveraged multiple insights from the CytoReason’ platform, in several of its R&D programmes across more than 20 diseases.
Pfizer worldwide research, development and medical president and chief scientific officer Mikael Dolsten said: “The extension of our collaboration with CytoReason will build upon our existing data science capabilities, and further enhance our ability to make data-driven decisions across our portfolio.
“We are excited to continue this successful partnership, which has helped us investigate challenging biological questions to potentially inform the development of new therapies for the benefit of patients.”
The Israeli technology company collects unique data from pharmaceutical companies to create computation models of human diseases, tissue by tissue, cell by cell.
With a team of 65 biologists, bioinformaticians and data engineers, CytoReason has developed a technology that enables pharma and biotech companies to ramp up drug research and development.
Its large database and AI-led platform will help reduce clinical trial duration, development costs, and increase the chances of approval, said the Israeli company.
CytoReason CEO and co-founder David Harel said: “It’s exciting to see our technology in the hands of such a stellar group of scientists.
“Our work with the Pfizer team has demonstrated how our computational models can potentially match the right treatment to the right patient groups, across multiple therapeutic areas.
“Through this collaboration and our growing customer base worldwide, we aim to establish our platform as the gold standard for drug discovery, development and portfolio management.”
In October last year, the Israeli company has teamed up with German drugmaker Merck to profile one of its leading immuno-oncology drugs.
Under the collaboration, CytoReason will use its computational disease models to help Merck understand the drug’s mechanism of action, identify patient populations and prioritise indications.