ARMONK, N.Y. and NEW YORK, Dec. 1,
2016 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) Watson
Health and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) today announced a collaboration
that will utilize IBM Watson for Drug Discovery to help accelerate
Pfizer's research in immuno-oncology, an approach to cancer
treatment that uses the body's immune system to help fight cancer.
Pfizer is one of the first organizations worldwide to deploy
Watson for Drug Discovery, and the
first to customize the cloud-based cognitive tool – tapping in to
Watson's machine learning, natural
language processing, and other cognitive reasoning technologies to
support the identification of new drug targets, combination
therapies for study, and patient selection strategies in
immuno-oncology.
Immunotherapies, which modify a patient's immune system to
recognize and target cancer cells using a combination of vaccines,
immunomodulators, and small/large molecules, are reshaping the
field of oncology. Oncology researchers at Pfizer will use
Watson for Drug Discovery to
analyze massive volumes of disparate data sources, including
licensed and publicly available data as well as Pfizer's
proprietary data. With this new tool, Pfizer researchers will
analyze and test hypotheses to generate evidence-based insights for
real-time interaction. The customized technology can also support
efficient safety assessments.
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and is
arguably one of the most complex diseases known to
mankind.1 Many researchers believe that the future of
immuno-oncology lies in combinations tailored to unique tumor
characteristics, which could transform the cancer treatment
paradigm and enable more oncology patients to be treated.
"Pfizer remains committed to staying at the forefront of
immuno-oncology research," said Mikael Dolsten, President, Pfizer
Worldwide Research & Development. "With the incredible volume
of data and literature available in this complex field, we believe
that tapping into advanced technologies can help our scientific
experts more rapidly identify novel combinations of
immune-modulating agents. We are hopeful that by leveraging
Watson's cognitive capabilities in
our drug discovery efforts, we will be able to bring promising new
immuno-oncology therapeutics to patients more quickly."
Laurie Olson, Executive Vice
President, Strategy, Portfolio and Commercial Operations, Pfizer,
said, "At Pfizer, we are entering a new frontier in data innovation
in which we are investing in a range of new technologies and
digital solutions to help us dynamically mine both internal and
external data sources to find new connections in science, as well
as help us better understand how diseases progress and how they
could potentially be treated. Applying the power of cognitive
computing to an area that is a core part of our DNA – discovering
new medicines – is helping Pfizer to learn how we can most
efficiently discover those immuno-oncology therapies that have the
best chance of successful outcomes for patients."
The newly launched Watson for Drug Discovery is a
cloud-based offering that aims to help life
sciences researchers discover new drug targets and alternative
drug indications. The average researcher reads between 200 and 300
articles in a given year2, while Watson for Drug Discovery has ingested 25
million Medline abstracts, more than 1 million full-text medical
journal articles, 4 million patents and is regularly updated.
Watson for Drug Discovery can be augmented with an
organization's private data such as lab reports and can help
researchers look across disparate data sets to surface
relationships and reveal hidden patterns through dynamic
visualizations.
"We believe that the next great medical innovations will emerge
as researchers and scientists find new patterns in existing bodies
of knowledge. In order to do this, they need access to R&D
tools that can help them efficiently navigate the opportunities and
challenges presented by the explosion of data globally," said
Lauren O'Donnell, Vice President of
Life Sciences, IBM Watson Health. "IBM is honored to collaborate
with Pfizer, and put Watson for
Drug Discovery to work to support efforts in bringing life-saving
immunotherapies to doctors and patients worldwide."
About IBM Watson Health
Watson is the first
commercially available cognitive computing capability representing
a new era in computing. The system, delivered through the cloud,
analyzes high volumes of data, understands complex questions posed
in natural language, and proposes evidence-based answers.
Watson continuously learns,
gaining in value and knowledge over time, from previous
interactions. In April 2015, the
company launched IBM Watson Health and the Watson Health Cloud
platform. The new unit works with doctors, researchers and insurers
to help them innovate by surfacing insights from the massive amount
of personal health data being created and shared daily. The Watson
Health Cloud can mask patient identities and allow for information
to be shared and combined with a dynamic and constantly growing
aggregated view of clinical, research and social health data.
The Watson Health portfolio includes a variety of data, analytic
and cognitive offerings to help life sciences organizations address
the complex challenges involved in drug discovery, regulatory
compliance, real world evidence and commercial optimization. For
more information about Watson for
Drug Discovery, please visit http://ibm.co/WDD. For more
information on IBM Watson Health, visit: ibm.com/watsonhealth.
Pfizer Inc: Working together for a healthier world®
At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring
therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their
lives. We strive to set the standard for quality, safety and value
in the discovery, development and manufacture of health care
products. Our global portfolio includes medicines and vaccines as
well as many of the world's best-known consumer health care
products. Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and
emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and
cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time.
Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world's premier
innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with health
care providers, governments and local communities to support and
expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world.
For more than 150 years, Pfizer has worked to make a difference for
all who rely on us. For more information, please visit us at
www.pfizer.com. In addition, to learn more, follow us on Twitter at
@Pfizer and @Pfizer_News, LinkedIn, YouTube and like us on Facebook
at Facebook.com/Pfizer.
PFIZER DISCLOSURE NOTICE: The information contained
in this release is as of December 1,
2016. Pfizer assumes no obligation to update forward-looking
statements contained in this release as the result of new
information or future events or developments.
This release contains forward-looking information about the
potential of immuno-oncology and a collaboration between Watson
Health and Pfizer to customize IBM Watson for Drug Discovery to
help accelerate Pfizer's research in immuno-oncology, including
their potential benefits, that involves substantial risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those expressed or implied by such statements. Risks and
uncertainties include, among other things, the uncertainties
inherent in research and development; uncertainties regarding
whether and when the collaboration will be successful and whether
and when it will yield any potential drug targets or
immuno-oncology therapy candidates; whether and when any
applications may be filed with regulatory authorities for any
potential immuno-oncology therapy candidates; whether and when
regulatory authorities may approve any such applications, which
will depend on the assessment by such regulatory authorities of the
benefit-risk profile suggested by the totality of the efficacy and
safety information submitted; decisions by regulatory authorities
regarding labeling and other matters that could affect the
availability or commercial potential of any potential
immuno-oncology therapy candidates; and competitive
developments.
A further description of risks and uncertainties can be found in
Pfizer's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended
December 31, 2015 and in its
subsequent reports on Form 10-Q, including in the sections thereof
captioned "Risk Factors" and "Forward-Looking Information and
Factors That May Affect Future Results", as well as in its
subsequent reports on Form 8-K, all of which are filed with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and available
at www.sec.gov and www.pfizer.com.
Sources:
- National Cancer Institute, "Cancer Statistics." Accessed
18 November 2016. Available at
http://ibm.biz/Bdsqw9
- Van Noorden R. Scientists may be
reaching a peak in reading habits, http://ibm.biz/BdrAjS,
February 3, 2014.
Media Contacts:
Sally
Beatty Kristi
Bond
Pfizer Media
Relations IBM
Communications
212-733-6566 802-345-8313
Sally.beatty@pfizer.com Kristi.bond@us.ibm.com
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SOURCE IBM