Pfizer enters insulin research consortium

Pfizer has announced that it has entered into a partnership working agreement with major research universities in a bid to enhance its understanding of the pathobiology of diabetes and obesity.

The company has joined teams from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Caltech, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Massachusetts and physiological modelling company Entelos.

Pfizer is to fund the Insulin Resistance Pathway project with $14 million (seven million pounds) over a three-year period.

The project will investigate insulin signalling in adipose cells to boost understanding of the linked conditions of diabetes and obesity.

Robert Garofalo, senior research fellow from the cardiovascular, metabolic and endocrine diseases therapeutic area at Pfizer, said: “What is most exciting and unique about this effort is that we are combining distinct approaches to transform our picture of what happens inside the cell in response to insulin.”

He added that insulin starts a three-dimensional network of interconnected responses, with it being the goal of the firm to understand this network and how it alters in diabetes and similar conditions.

Earlier this month, Pfizer annoujnced new labelling on its Exubera insulin product following an investigation into a possible link between the treatment and the onset of lung cancer in patients.

The firm reported that all patients who developed lung cancer had a prior history of cigarette smoking, with there to few cases to determine any link between the use of Exubera and the disease.