Pfizer is taking another shot at opening a research center in San Francisco's Mission Bay. The world's largest drugmaker is committing $100 million dollars over the next 5 years to partner with University of California, San Francisco, and will employ 40 staffers and researchers at the 11,000 square-foot Mission Bay Research Campus. This is Pfizer's second attempt to establish a research center in the Bay Area. The developer announced similar plans in 2008, but canceled those plans after it decided to purchase Wyeth.
The deal is part of Pfizer's strategy to establish R&D centers in areas that are already known for being productive bioscience clusters. In a similar move last month, Pfizer announced that it would start a Center for Therapeutic Innovation in Boston. Another research center was also founded in New York.
"There is a valley of death for many basic-science discoveries that have significant promise because they are not far enough advanced to be of interest to a biotech or pharmaceutical company," Gladstone Institutes researcher Dr. Warner Greene told the San Francisco Chronicle. "By forming closer relationships between Pfizer and biotech companies, I think more creative solutions can be had for moving research down the pipeline."
- read the San Francisco Chronicle article for more