Pfizer has established a research collaboration with Medco Health Solutions and its wholly owned subsidiary, United BioSource Corporation (UBC), aimed at more effectively matching patients with treatments that will benefit them the most, thereby improving patient outcomes.

The collaboration is intended to enhance Pfizer's precision medicine approach, which integrates genomic and phenotypic information, to help understand the underlying biology of disease and identify patients likely to benefit from a new drug. In the future, this approach could make it possible to precisely select disease targets and improve the safety and effectiveness of medical treatments in real-world practice.

New treatments may target particular subgroups of patients with similar genetic profiles and physical characteristics that make these patients more likely to benefit from certain drugs.

For example, the collaboration may look at individuals who are genetically predisposed to develop a particular disease. The development of this particular disease may be affected by environmental factors or patient characteristics such as genetic information, diet, body weight, age, and smoking. Based on information about similar patients, it may be possible to determine if these individuals are more likely to benefit from one course of treatment than another and provide information to guide treatment decisions that can improve the health of others in the same subgroup.

Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer and Medco will collaborate to identify and evaluate patient subgroups in which investigational drugs and marketed drugs are shown to be most effective in improving patient care and health. As a part of this agreement, Medco and Pfizer will jointly plan and implement precision medicine studies and initiatives, maintaining patient privacy in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and other applicable data use obligations.