Pfizer Inc. has launched a competitive, peer-reviewed grants program to support clinical research projects investigating Ibrance (palbociclib) in advanced breast cancer. The multi-year program, which will award a total of up to $3 million in grants to investigators in the United States, is an extension of Pfizer's Advancing Science through Pfizer Investigator Research Exchange (ASPIRE) initiative. It is the first ASPIRE program to focus on breast cancer research.

Ibrance received accelerated approval by the US Food and Drug Administration in February 2015 for use in combination with letrozole for the treatment of postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (ER+/HER2-) advanced breast cancer as initial endocrine-based therapy for their metastatic disease.

Grantees will be selected through a competitive application process overseen by an independent review panel of breast cancer experts. The review panel encourages investigators (with a special interest for emerging researchers at Assistant Professor level or equivalent) to submit applications for innovative research in several areas. Highlights of the research of interest include improving the medical knowledge of palbociclib in the treatment of advanced breast cancer and optimizing clinical management during palbociclib treatment that addresses or improves patient compliance and convenience and/or patient reported outcomes.

Source: Pfizer