Pfizer Taps IBM for Research Collaboration to Transform Parkinson’s Disease Care

NEW YORK & ARMONK, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and IBM (NYSE:IBM) today announced a
first-of-its-kind research collaboration to develop innovative remote
monitoring solutions aimed at transforming how clinicians deliver care
to patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The experimental
approach will rely on a system of sensors, mobile devices, and machine
learning to provide real-time, around-the-clock disease symptom
information to clinicians and researchers. The ultimate goal is to
obtain a better understanding of a patient’s disease progression and
medication response to help inform treatment decisions and clinical
trial design, while also speeding the development of new therapeutic
options.

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IBM Research Data Scientist Eric Clark explores wearable technologies that could help monitor and analyze biological data from study subjects at IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown, NY. IBM and Pfizer are collaborating to create a first-of-a-kind remote monitoring system to help track the overall health of patients with Parkinson’s disease. This non-invasive, real-time approach to patient data could offer new insights into disease progression and treatment plans. By applying advanced analytics and machine learning to sensor data, the hope is to transform how neurological diseases are diagnosed and treated. (Photo Credit: Jon Simon/Feature Photo Service for IBM)

Parkinson’s disease in particular requires ongoing adjustment to
medication depending on the progression of the disease and response of
the patient. The collaboration seeks to create a holistic view of a
patient’s well-being by seeking to accurately measure a variety of
health indicators, including motor function, dyskinesia, cognition,
sleep and daily activities such as grooming, dressing and eating.
Insights from these data could help clinicians understand the effect of
a patient’s medication as the disease progresses, enabling them to help
optimize the patient’s treatment regimen as needed. Data generated
through the system could also arm researchers with the insights and
real-world evidence needed to help accelerate potential new and better
therapies.

According to the World Health Organization, neurological disorders
including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, multiple
sclerosis and epilepsy impact almost one billion families around the
worldⁱ and account for 12 percent of total deaths globally.ⁱⁱ
Many diseases of the brain, spine, and nerves are progressive conditions
that get worse over time and can create uncontrolled movement, impair
the ability to think, and cause other debilitating symptoms impacting
the patient’s quality of life. Approximately 60,000 Americans are
diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease each year according to the
Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, and an estimated seven to 10 million
people suffer from the disease globally.ⁱⁱⁱ

“We have an opportunity to potentially redefine how we think about
patient outcomes and 24/7 monitoring, by combining Pfizer’s scientific,
medical and regulatory expertise with IBM’s ability to integrate and
interpret complex data in innovative ways,” said Mikael Dolsten, M.D.,
Ph.D., President of Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development. “The key
to our success will be to deliver a reliable, scalable system of
measurement and analysis that would help inform our clinical programs
across important areas of unmet medical need, potentially accelerating
the drug development and regulatory approval processes and helping us to
get better therapies to patients, faster.”

“With the proliferation of digital health information, one area that
remains elusive is the collection of real-time physiological data to
support disease management,” said Arvind Krishna, Senior Vice President
and Director of IBM Research. “We are testing ways to create a system
that passively collects data with little to no burden on the patient,
and to provide doctors and researchers with objective, real-time
insights that we believe could fundamentally change the way patients are
monitored and treated.”

The two companies project that the system will move into initial
clinical testing quickly. Pfizer and IBM will convene an external
advisory board of patient groups, advocacy organizations, clinicians,
and neuroscientists for guidance on the use of technology, medical
devices, data management, and research protocols, and to ensure the
needs of patients guide the program.

IBM IoT in Healthcare

This project marks a significant milestone in IBM’s work to advance
Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in healthcare. Emory
University Hospital is creating an instrumented ICU using IBM’s
streaming analytics technology to advance predictive medicine for
critical patients in the ICU. The new system will enable clinicians to
acquire, analyze and correlate medical data at a volume and velocity
that was never before possible. Neonatal
intensive care specialists at The University of Ontario Institute of
Technology are relying on the same software to analyze more than 1,000
pieces of unique information per second flowing from sensors and
equipment monitoring premature babies, helping caregivers spot the onset
of sepsis infections up to 24 hours earlier. And, Medtronic
is working with IBM Watson Health to create a cognitive app designed to
analyze real-time data from Medtronic devices to help detect important
patterns and trends for people with diabetes.

About IBM

Learn more about IBM Research at www.research.ibm.com.

Learn more about IBM Watson Health at www.ibm.com/watsonhealth.

Follow us on Twitter at @IBMResearch and @IBMWatsonHealth

About Pfizer Inc.

At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies
to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. We strive
to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery,
development and manufacture of health care products. Our global
portfolio includes medicines and vaccines as well as many of the world’s
best-known consumer health care products. Every day, Pfizer colleagues
work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness,
prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases
of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world’s
premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with
health care providers, governments and local communities to support and
expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For
more than 150 years, Pfizer has worked to make a difference for all who
rely on us. For more information, please visit us at www.pfizer.com.
In addition, to learn more, follow us on Twitter at @Pfizer
and @Pfizer_News and like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/Pfizer.

Pfizer Disclosure Notice

The information contained in this release is as of April 7, 2016.
Pfizer assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements
contained in this release as the result of new information or future
events or developments.

This release contains forward-looking information about a research
collaboration with IBM to develop innovative remote monitoring solutions
aimed at transforming how clinicians deliver care to patients suffering
from Parkinson’s disease, and its potential benefits, that involves
substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements.
Risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the uncertainties
inherent in research and development; risks related to the ability to
realize the anticipated benefits of the collaboration with IBM,
including the possibility that the expected benefits from such
collaboration will not be realized or will not be realized within the
expected time period; other business effects, including the effects of
industry, market, economic, political or regulatory conditions; and
competitive developments.

A further description of risks and uncertainties can be found in
Pfizer’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December
31, 2015, and in its subsequent reports on Form 10-Q, including in the
sections thereof captioned “Risk Factors” and “Forward-Looking
Information and Factors That May Affect Future Results”, as well as in
its subsequent reports on Form 8-K, all of which are filed with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.sec.gov and www.pfizer.com.

ⁱ BrainFacts.org. Global Prevalence of
Diseases and Disorders. 27 April 2012. Available at http://www.brainfacts.org/policymakers/global-prevalence-of-diseases-and-disorders
Accessed on April 4, 2016

ⁱⁱ World Health Organization. Neurological
disorders: Public Health Challenges. 2006. Chapter 2, page 35.
Available at http://www.who.int/mental_health/neurology/chapter_2_neuro_disorders_public_h_challenges.pdf
Accessed on April 4, 2016.

ⁱⁱⁱ Parkinson’s Disease Foundation. Statistics
on Parkinson’s. Available at www.pdf.org/en/parkinson_statistics
Accessed on April 4, 2016

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