Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases
The current projections for growth in the prevalence of diabetes threaten to create a global public health crisis. WHO predicts that the worldwide prevalence of diabetes will grow from 171 million in 2000 to 373 million by 2030. In the United States alone, 20.8 million (9.6%) persons aged 20 years and older have diabetes. Impaired glucose tolerance (i.e., prediabetes) is also common with prevalence rates ranging from 6.9% in France to 14.9% in Japan and >20% in the US. Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remain the leading cause of global mortality, accounting for about 1 in every 2 adult deaths worldwide. Declines over the past few decades in the incidence of CVD in Western populations - mediated in part by development of acute interventions and medicines targeting lipid and blood pressure pathways - have began to plateau, and rates of CVD in developing countries continue to increase at an alarming rate. The global burden of chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease, recognized and likely causal risk factors for CVD, is also growing. Contemporary estimates suggest that over 40M people in the US, and over 120M people in China, have impaired renal function. Pfizer scientists are eager to work with world-class partners who share our mission to develop novel and differentiated medicines to improve the lives of patients suffering from diabetes cardiovascular, renal and related co-morbidities around the world.
WRD is interested in establishing alliances to develop therapeutics, expand disease biology understanding, and identify biomarkers that impact:
- CV-risk (ACS, peripheral vascular disease, stroke, atherosclerosis, and heart failure) in non-diabetic and diabetic through improvement in vascular function, protection or repair, reduced vascular inflammation, dyslipidemia, or enhanced cardiac repair and performance
- Blood pressure in difficult to treat hypertensives
- Prevention of renal disease in non-diabetics & diabetics
- Solute transporters and renal disease
- Kidney podocyte architecture
- The progression of co-morbidities related to T2D, in particular end-stage kidney disease
- Insulin sensitization with weight loss
- Shifting people to negative energy balance
- Beta-cell function and survival in T2D dysregulation of alpha-cell function
- Non-insulin dependent glucose clearance
- Metabolic adaptations to exercise which protect against or reverse diabetes
- Mechanisms which protect mitochondria under conditions of chronic caloric excess
- Lipid content and the appearance of liver fibrosis in patients with NASH / NAFL
- Dysregulation of liver metabolism
- Total body energy expenditure, beige and brown fat metabolism
- Gut and brain signals that regulate energy homeostasis and metabolism
- The role of sleep and circadian rhythm in regulating endocrine function & metabolism
