Pfizer Invests In Eye Firm EyeCyte

Continuing its push for biotech partnerships and acquisitions, Pfizer has invested $3 million in EyeCyte, an early-stage stem- and progenitor-cell-based ophthalmology company in La Jolla, Calif. Pfizer, through its Biotherapeutics & Bioinnovation Center, will be the sole pharmaceutical partner of EyeCyte, which is based on the work of Scripps Research Institute scientist Martin Friedlander. Pfizer will also gain right of first refusal for a buyout of EyeCyte or its technologies. Pfizer recently formed a $9.5 million research collaboration with the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences at the University of California, San Francisco (C&EN, June 16, page 34).