R&D Locations: La Jolla

The La Jolla Laboratories powerfully reinforce Pfizer's presence in the global biotechnology industry. The La Jolla Laboratories have championed many of today’s innovative approaches to discovering new drugs to fight cancer, AIDS, and other serious diseases.

Key to La Jolla's success is the ability to bring together new findings and technologies from a variety of scientific disciplines and apply them to the challenges typically faced in drug discovery efforts.

Pfizer invested more than $522 million over the past four years in creating a fully integrated discovery and development campus at La Jolla. The 33.5-acre campus now includes eight buildings totaling more than 1 million square feet with state-of-the-art facilities enabling Pfizer scientists to pursue a new medicine all the way from an idea through regulatory approval, with specialized laboratories and equipment for structural and computational biology, molecular design, high throughput chemistry, and pharmacology.

La Jolla is an important part of California's life sciences community and partners with academic institutions and other research organizations to advance scientific understanding and deliver new medicines. In 2007, Pfizer launched a new 28,000-square-foot incubator facility (The Pfizer Incubator) on the La Jolla campus with eight high-tech chemistry and biology labs as well as adjoining office space. Pfizer will invest $10 million a year in The Pfizer Incubator, supporting life science start-ups that are working on projects related to the company's prime therapeutic areas. In addition, Pfizer is investing $100 million over five years in a research collaboration with The Scripps Research Institute to advance scientific knowledge of today's incurable diseases and novel ways to treat them.

In addition, Pfizer Vaccines Research has recently been established at the site. Vaccines Research, based in La Jolla, Calif., and Sandwich, UK, is a key part of the new Biotherapeutics Line at Pfizer. The Vaccines Research department in La Jolla seeks to discover novel prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines for the prevention and treatment of significant human diseases (in the areas of Oncology and CNS) using various technology platforms combined with immunomodulatory agents.

The campus is on a mesa less than one mile from the Pacific Ocean and mirrors the vibrancy found in the San Diego area, which is home to with one of the largest concentrations of academic and biotechnology institutions in the world. Within a 10-mile radius of the La Jolla campus are major educational and research facilities such as the University of California at San Diego, The Scripps Research Institute, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and some 200 biotech firms.

Research Highlights

Today, the Pfizer La Jolla scientists are pursuing new medicines in important therapeutic areas:

Oncology

Pfizer is becoming a global force in oncology and 50 percent of the research effort is underway at La Jolla. Researchers are working to find treatments that focus on specific targets important in tumor growth and survival. In early 2006, the FDA approved Sutent^®, a drug developed at Pfizer La Jolla for treating rare forms of intestinal and kidney cancers. Its novel mechanism both cuts off the blood supply to the cancer and destroys cellular reproduction. Pfizer La Jolla colleagues are currently involved in teams that are progressing equally innovative compounds through clinical trials on breast, liver, thyroid, lung and colorectal cancers.

Ophthalmology

La Jolla is home to Pfizer's research and development in ophthalmology. Researchers are currently focused on a number of targets, including glaucoma and macular degeneration. Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness in the United States today with more than two million patients suffering from the most common form - open angle glaucoma. Pfizer's Xalatan^® is the leading treatment for the debilitating disease and researchers are continuing to seek new treatments. In 2004, the FDA approved Macugen^® (pegaptanib), the first drug in its class for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration. Pfizer La Jolla is advancing other compounds for possible treatment of macular degeneration by targeting VEGF receptors.

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