JDRF is teaming up with Pfizer’s Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) to support the development and translation of diabetes research that the organizations consider promising. JDRF and Pfizer plan to co-fund up to four projects, and the collaboration will initially focus on co-funding projects in the fields of immune tolerance, diabetic nephropathy, and beta cell health.
CTI is a open-innovation partnering model designed by Pfizer, wherein Pfizer employees work with scientific investigators and post-docs from academic medical centers to accelerate drug discovery and development. The organizations say they plan to work together to find novel research projects that show promise, using JDRF’s expertise in the field of type 1 diabetes research and CTI’s network of academic medical centers.
“By harnessing resources and expertise from both of our organizations, we can speed the development and delivery of better treatments that could improve millions of lives—a vision shared by JDRF and CTI,” Jeffrey Brewer, president and CEO of JDRF, said in a statement.
This is not the first time that JDRF and Pfizer have worked together: In March of 2010, JDRF and Pfizer funded a research collaboration with Hadassah Medical Organization and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem with the aim of developing drugs that replicate and regenerate insulin-producing cells in people with type 1 diabetes.
