Pfizer joins forces with IBM on immuno-oncology drug discovery

Pfizer has teamed up with IBM to accelerate its search for new immuno-oncology treatments, launching the newly-created IBM Watson for Drug Discovery programme.

The cloud-based cognitive tool will employ Watson's trademark machine learning, language processing and cognitive reasoning technologies to identify new drug targets, combination therapies and patient selection strategies in immuno-oncology.

The partners hope that by using the supercomputer to analyse the huge volumes of data collated from licensed, public and Pfizer's own data sources, the US pharma giant's researchers will be able to generate evidence-based insights for real-time interaction.

Laurie Olson, Pfizer's executive vice president for strategy, portfolio and commercial operations, 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.”

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