Pfizer Inc.has launched a new competitive grants program to support research projects investigating the role of proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin type 9 (PCSK9) in health and cardiovascular disease. This competitive grants program is an extension of the Advancing Science through Pfizer Investigator Research Exchange (ASPIRE) Cardiovascular program. Pfizer currently is studying bococizumab, an investigational PCSK9 inhibitor, in a Phase III clinical trial program, known as SPIRE (Studies of PCSK9 Inhibition and the Reduction of vascular Events), for its potential to lower low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and improve cardiovascular outcomes.

Grantees will be selected through a competitive application process overseen by an independent Review Committee of leading experts. The Committee will be chaired by Professor John Chapman, director emeritus of the Dyslipidemia and Atherosclerosis Research Unit of the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) at the Pitié-Salpétrière University Hospital in Paris, France.

The Review Committee 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: pathophysiology of non-diabetic or diabetic dyslipidemia and atherosclerotic vascular disease; lipoprotein particles, cellular lipoprotein receptors, and lipid homeostasis; role of PCSK9 in lipoprotein (a) metabolism; vascular biology; pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases other than atherosclerosis; non-lipid/lipoprotein effects of PCSK9; PCSK9 and the immune system; and PCSK9 and infectious disease.

In identifying the unmet needs and/or residual risk in high risk secondary/primary prevention patients that may be addressed by PCSK9 inhibitors, eligible research projects for this program include: basic/pre-clinical/clinical science and outcomes/epidemiological research to understand unmet needs and/or residual risk in high risk secondary/primary prevention patients that may be addressed by PCSK9 inhibitors.

Source: Pfizer