Pfizer (PFE 1.52%) is putting some of its growing cash stockpile to use. The big drugmaker recently announced a collaboration with Acuitas Therapeutics. In this Motley Fool Live video, recorded on Jan. 12, Fool contributors Keith Speights and Brian Orelli discuss why Pfizer is teaming up with Acuitas.
Keith Speights: The collaboration with Beam (BEAM +2.70%) wasn't Pfizer's only announcement of business development this week. The company also said that it's teaming up with Acuitas Therapeutics, which is privately held.
What do you think about this deal, Brian? Is it more or less significant than Pfizer's partnership with Beam?
Brian Orelli: Acuitas is a lipid nanoparticle technology. It's what Pfizer and BioNTech use right now for their COVID-19 vaccine, Comirnaty.
The lipid nanoparticles are what surrounds the mRNA. It protects the mRNA, but it also helps the mRNA get into the cells. Cell membranes are made of lipids. The lipid nanoparticle basically just fuses with the cell membrane and that gets the mRNA in the cell and then the mRNA are expressing proteins, and then for the COVID vaccine that's a spike protein. Then the immune system recognizes the spike protein as foreign and develops antibodies against it.
Pfizer's new deal with Acuitas is an option to license the lipid nanoparticle technology for up to 10 vaccines or therapeutic products. It seems like Pfizer's planning on developing mRNA products on its own. We talked about on Monday about how it had teamed up with BioNTech for a shingles vaccine. We hypothesized that meant that Pfizer maybe wasn't as interested in going it alone on mRNA products like it had previously stated.
But this deal definitely implies that it's planning on moving forward on its own with mRNA therapeutics or vaccines. That's maybe my final note would be just that maybe Pfizer's just keeping its options open.
But I found it really interesting that the deal notes that the lipid nanoparticles can be used for vaccines or therapeutics. We obviously have proof of concept for vaccines. But I think therapeutics is a wide-open opportunity, but it's unproven at this point.
Speights: I'm going to put you on the spot here, Brian. Pfizer has these two deals that it had announced, one with Acuitas, one with the Beam Therapeutics. Which of the two do you predict is going to be the bigger factor for Pfizer over the next 10 years?
Orelli: I'm going to go with Acuitas because I think the 10 mRNA vaccines or therapeutics, I think are potentially bigger opportunities and less risky than the three programs for Beam. Although we don't even know what the candidates are, what they are going to target.
It's a little hard to guess. In both cases, I guess we don't know what the targets are, but I'm going to guess that the Beam is probably going to go after some rare disease. Because those are most likely going to be an inherited disease because we know that they're trying to fix mutations, and so that will be my guess, is that the 10 mRNA vaccines or therapeutics is probably going to be more valuable to Pfizer than the three rare disease drugs. Assuming that's what they are.
