WOBURN, Mass.—CNS drug specialist Cambria Biosciences announced the signing of a research collaboration agreement with Pfizer Animal Health to discover and develop new classes of antiparasitic drug products. As with the human population, there is a growing problem of drug resistance in animal parasites and microbes, which the new deal hopes to address. Financial terms were not disclosed but include milestone payments.

 

Cambria will use its chemical genetics platform to identify the molecular targets of Pfizer's therapeutic candidates, facilitating a better understanding of the compounds' modes of action and the development of more candidates. An often ignored component of the global drug industry, animal health products are a €4-billion market in Europe alone, which represents about a quarter of global sales, according to a May 2007 report in Animal Pharm.

 

"We are pleased that the experience and skills in chemical and genetic discovery that we have used to build our internal product pipeline for human neurological indications can also be leveraged to help companies such as Pfizer Animal Health improve the health and well being of animals around the world," says Dr. Leo Liu, Cambria president and CEO.