Pfizer grants funding to early-stage stem cell company

Pfizer has agreed a Series A funding agreement with EyeCyte, an early-stage stem cell-based ophthalmology research and development company based in California.

The agreement will see the company funded into 2010, with the money used mainly to drive product development in diabetic retinopathy, the initial clinical target of EyeCyte.

Under the terms of the funding arrangement, Pfizer has invested $3 million (1.5 million pounds) in Series A Preferred shares of EyeCyte.

Pfizer notes it will have an advisory and board role at the company while being its only pharmaceutical partner and will have first right-of refusal for a buy-out of the company or its technologies.

Through the deal, Pfizer will help enable technology applications that have a meaningful pharmaceutical and patient impact.

Corey Goodman, president of Pfizer Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Centre, said: “We are excited about the potential that this collaboration offers to the millions of patients suffering from vascular or degenerative eye diseases, such as macular degeneration.”

He added the partnership agreement will complement the company’s own internal research efforts and provides an example of the investments the firm is making in biotechnology and academic partnerships to accelerate research in emerging scientific areas.

Last week, Pfizer entered into a research and development agreement with the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine worth $15 million.