Pfizer, Biovista ink pact to find new uses for established drugs

Pfizer Inc., hoping to speed up the discovery of new uses for established medicines, has signed an agreement to use new technology from Charlottesville, Va.-based Biovista Inc. in what is being termed today “a pilot research collaboration.”

Biovista said in a press release that it will work with Pfizer’s St. Louis-based Indications Discovery Unit to help reposition a number of unnamed drugs for possible use against conditions not previously targeted. Using a technology called Clinical Outcome Search Space, Biovista will help identify up to three new indications for each of the Pfizer medicines.

Don Frail, chief scientific officer of Pfizer’s Indications Discovery Unit, said in a statement that the company hopes “to expand uses for our drugs and to help accelerate our clinical programs.”

Pfizer will provide Biovista an undisclosed upfront payment as well as milestone fees.

“Every drug may have potential beyond its initially developed uses,” said Aris Persidis, president of Biovista, in a statement. “Working with Pfizer on potential new indications may benefit expanded sets of patients with unmet medical needs.”

Pfizer’s most famously repositioned drug was Viagra, also known as sildenafil citrate, originally tested for angina but eventually approved to treat erectile dysfunction.

Other successes for Pfizer in this area include gabapentin, an epilepsy drug later given regulatory approval to treat certain types of pain.

Pfizer, which has major research sites in Groton and New London, formed its Indications Discovery Unit in 2007.