Pfizer is launching a new, competitive grant program that solicits research projects on the gene PCSK9’s role in cardiovascular disease. It marks yet another step in big pharma’s goal to directly plumb academia for insights on their own drug targets.
The grant program, through Pfizer’s Aspire initiative (Advancing Science through Pfizer Investigator Research Exchange), will fund grants up to $100,000 to support new research. The application period will end May 28.
PCSK9, short for Proprotein Convertase Subtilisin Kexin Type 9, codes for how cholesterol is regulated in the bloodstream. The scientists behind last year’s Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit marked PCSK9 as one of the must-watch techs of 2015. They projected that a new class of monoclonal antibodies – called PCSK9 inhibitors – are proving to be highly impactful medications in treating high cholesterol, particularly among those patients who don’t respond well to statins.
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Pfizer is already developing a PCSK9 inhibitor, called bococizumab, and is in the midst of a Phase 3 program to study its impact on LDL cholesterol levels.. Other big pharma involved in developing PCSK9 inhibitors include Amgen, Sanofi and Regeneron.
The grant program is open to scientists across the research gamut: It’s after basic, preclinical, clinical, outcome-based and epidemiological study. Here are the areas of research Pfizer says it’s interested in:
- Pathophysiology of non-diabetic or diabetic dyslipidemia and atherosclerotic vascular disease
- Lipoprotein particles, cellular lipoprotein receptors, and lipid homeostasis
- Role of PCSK9 in lipoprotein (a) metabolism
- Vascular biology
- Pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases other than atherosclerosis
- Non-lipid/lipoprotein effects of PCSK9
- PCSK9 and the immune system
- PCSK9 and infectious disease
- Identifying the unmet needs and/or residual risk in high risk secondary/primary prevention patients that may be addressed by PCSK9 inhibitors
“Our development of the ASPIRE Cardiovascular competitive grants program aligns with a key area of focus for Pfizer: advancing the science, finding and developing new medicines that will treat – and ultimately may prevent – cardiovascular disease,” Rory O’Connor, a senior vice president of global medical affairs at Pfizer said in a statement.
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