Pfizer ($PFE) has launched an academia-collaboration effort called The Global Centers for Therapeutic Innovation. The drug giant will open up its antibody libraries and research tools to partners, initially on discovery projects.

The company sees the role of the Cambridge, Mass.-based centers as a way of engaging leading external scientists in its R&D strategy. Also, it sees the idea as a means to more efficient and accelerated drug development.

Pfizer is offering milestone payments and intellectual property rights to its partners in exchange for commercialization rights. In the kickoff project, the drugmaker is partnering with the University of California, San Francisco.

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