Pfizer Inc., which two years ago started looking fortherapeutic compounds in plants, fungi and Chineseherbs, is expanding the search to offshoremicroorganisms with the help of marine biologists inMassachusetts and Maryland.

"We're always seeking compounds for leads to developinto drugs," said Paul Armond, an assistant director atPfizer's research and development division in Groton,Conn. "We screen compounds in our files, synthesizenew ones, use combinatorial chemistry and look atnatural products."

In 1993, Pfizer expanded the scope of its natural productssearch to include extracts from plants in the U.S. throughan agreement with the New York Botanical Gardens. Acollaboration with the Chinese Academy of TraditionalChinese Medicine focuses on medicinal herbs as a sourceof potential drugs, while agreements with two otherChinese research centers and a Japanese instituteconcentrate on compounds derived from fungi.

Pfizer's newest venture involves associations withscientists at the University of Maryland BiotechnologyInstitute in Baltimore and the Marine BiologicalLaboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.

At the Baltimore institute, Pfizer will be examining workconducted by two researchers: Russell Hill, who studiesactinomycetes, antibiotic-producing bacteria found incoastal waters off Hawaii, and Frank Robb, who focuseson microorganisms that live in extremely hot water athydrothermal vents on the ocean floor.

In the collaboration with the Woods Hole laboratory,Pfizer will have access to Norman Wainwright's researchlooking at the chemical signals microorganisms send toone another.

Armond said Pfizer is interested in the "huge array ofchemical entities" produced by the microbes and will testthem for therapeutic activity against disease targets.

Pfizer, which will support the research projects of thethree marine biologists, did not disclose financial terms ofthe collaborations. n

-- Charles Craig

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.