Pfizer and Adaptive Biotechnologies announce new collaboration

Pfizer has announced a new translational research collaboration with Adaptive Biotechnologies.

The aim will be to make use of next-generation sequencing of the adaptive immune system to advance Pfizer's immuno-oncology capabilities. The companies will combine their drug development and platform technology biomarker expertise to identify patients who may benefit from immunotherapy treatment.

Adaptive will work with Pfizer to apply its proprietary immunosequencing platform technology, bioinformatics capability and scientific expertise to advance Pfizer's immuno-oncology pipeline.

Specifically, Adaptive's immunosequencing platform, which quantitatively and reproducibly measures the patient's immune-cell repertoire, will be used as a translational tool to accelerate Pfizer's immuno-oncology biomarker and drug development programmes.

Chris Boshoff, vice-president and head of early development for translational and immuno-oncology at Pfizer Oncology, said: "The collaboration with Adaptive Biotechnologies supports our strategy of accelerating the development of potentially innovative new combination treatments by allowing us to develop a differentiated and competitive understanding of the immune landscape in specific tumour types."