Pfizer Inc., the worlds largest pharmaceutical company, has a storied history of hunting for blockbuster drugs in its own labs. These days it is also hunting for collaborations with outside physician-scientists who could help it develop cures for diseases ranging from lung cancer to osteoporosis.

A natural habitat of this breed doctors who treat patients, teach at academic medical centers, and run government-funded research labs is Bostons Longwood Medical Area, home to Harvard Medical School and a cluster of its famous teaching hospitals. Thats where Pfizers new Centers for Therapeutic Innovation has established its worldwide headquarters.

The drug giant is betting it can bring more treatments to market by working with academic researchers in medical hubs like Boston. It also has set up satellite centers in New York, San Francisco, and La Jolla, Calif., outside San Diego, to strike alliances in those areas. Overall, Pfizer is committing up to $100 million to such collaborations over the next five years.

Were trying to change biomedical research globally, said Pfizers Jose-Carlos J.C. Gutierrez-Ramos in an interview from the companys perch on the top floor of a new glass-faced office tower at 3 Blackfan Circle. The old model is not efficient for us or for the academic medical centers, said Gutierrez-Ramos, who is Pfizers senior vice president and head of biotherapeutics research and development.

Other companies also are eager to share the costs and risks of developing new drugs with partners in the Boston area. Novartis AG, Sanofi SA, and Merck & Co. are among the global drug makers accelerating their partnering moves in the region.

Earlier this month Sanofi, which raised its profile by buying Cambridge-based biotech Genzyme Corp., entered into a diabetes research deal with Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Womens Hospital.

Boston is without a doubt number one for pharmas trying to cash in on the hope of a mother lode from academic drug research, said Kevin J. Gorman, managing partner at a Burlington life sciences consulting firm, Putnam Associates. Theyre placing bets on the roulette table. But its also a reflection that the internal efforts of the pharmas havent been terribly productive.

While each companys approach is different Novartis is codeveloping drugs with biotechs, while Sanofi is investing in life sciences start-ups Pfizers strategy may represent the most dramatic departure from its traditional research and development methods. The company signaled its intentions 17 months ago with the announcement it would move neuroscience and cardiovascular metabolic research operations to Cambridge from a sprawling campus in Groton, Conn.

Pfizers old business model involved either taking experimental treatments from the labs to the market by itself or buying companies that already had promising drug candidates. Both approaches were expensive generating fewer successes and alienating investors at a time when some of the companys best-selling products were losing their patent protection. That meant more competition from lower-cost generics.

Now, New York-based Pfizer is making fewer acquisitions and doing less early-stage research. Instead it is piggybacking more on the work of physician-scientists from other organizations. It is collaborating with Dr. Markus Frank at Harvard-affiliated Boston Childrens Hospital, for example, on a stem cell treatment for malignant melanoma. Pfizer also is partnering with Dr. David Salant at Boston Medical Center, a Boston University hospital, on a kidney disease therapy.

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