Innovator Profile: Meet Pfizer's Dr. Kendra Bence
- Apr 14, 2025
- 4 min read
By Renee Hurley
With the critical shift towards recognizing obesity as a complex, chronic, multi-factorial disease and the spotlight brightly shining on GLP-1s, scientists and researchers are empowered to continue searching for new therapies that fill existing treatment gaps and address restrictive side effects of current treatments.
Part of our mission at the Life Sciences Obesity Collaborative is to recognize and honor those who are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in obesity care and treatments, especially those who are inspired by patient journeys and lead with a patient-centric mindset.
With that, I’m honored to recognize Dr. Kendra Bence as our first Obesity Innovator. Dr. Bence is currently the Vice President, Obesity & Metabolism in the Internal Medicine Research Unit at Pfizer.
Soon after I launched the Collaborative, Dr. Bence reached out to me to connect and learn more about the initiative. From the first moment we spoke, she emanated passion, empathy and dedication. In that initial chat, she led with stories of patient advocates and how they inspired the work she and her team do. She had every opportunity to self-promote and yet she didn’t. I’m hoping to do a bit of that on her behalf. So, I invited Dr. Bence to chat with me again to learn more about her current role, how she got into the obesity field, and what excites her about the future of this space.
In your current role as Vice President, Obesity & Metabolism, what are your primary responsibilities?
I lead a talented group of scientists focused on developing therapies for obesity and cardiometabolic diseases. In addition, I work with academic collaborators and biotech innovators to develop the most promising ideas and technologies to accelerate delivery of medicines to patients.
You earned your doctorate in physiology and biophysics and began your career with a fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and as an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania. What led you into the field of pharmaceutical clinical development?
The biggest driver for my decision to join a pharmaceutical company was the opportunity to lead larger basic science teams and ultimately have a greater impact in moving the field forward. Being able to see an early discovery translate into a clinically successful pharmacotherapy for patients is humbling and inspiring.
With so many therapeutic options, what influenced your decision to focus on obesity and metabolism?
My PhD thesis research focused on the basic mechanics of cellular signaling pathways and was agnostic to any particular disease. During my post-doctoral research, a mouse model I was working on developed resistance to weight gain on a high-fat diet and my project was to figure out why. In a full-circle moment, it turned out that obesity protection arose from alterations in key signaling pathways in the brain (a great example of a basic science discovery leading to a breakthrough in understanding disease mechanisms)!
What fascinates me about metabolism is the complex crosstalk between organs system (the brain, gut, adipose tissue, liver, muscle, immune system, etc).
It is a great time for young scientists to enter the obesity field given the excitement around emerging incretin therapies and the need for additional novel approaches to treating this complex metabolic disease. We have a lot more work to do.
Can you share an example of research your team has published and/or is leading that excites you?
One of our Pfizer postdoctoral fellows, John Griffin (who is now a Senior Scientist), worked with our Obesity team to publish an interesting story in Molecular Metabolism examining the relationship between the hepatokine Activin E and adipose tissue metabolism, testing the hypothesis that Activin E functions as part of a liver-adipose inter-organ feedback loop to suppress adipose tissue lipolysis. This work is particularly insightful as human genome wide association studies (GWAS) indicate that a predicted loss-of-function variant in the Inhibin βE gene (INHBE), which encodes Activin E, is associated with reduced abdominal fat mass and cardiometabolic disease risk. Following clues from human genetics can give us insight into pathways associated with risk for chronic metabolic diseases and can provide some level of confidence that the pathway being studied is relevant to human physiology. See Reference
With so much progress happening, it’s easy for some to forget that clinical development also consists of many roadblocks. What do you foresee as the biggest challenges in clinical development in obesity?
A challenge in obesity clinical development is the high bar/precedence that has been set for demonstrating a dramatic percentage of body weight loss in a relatively short amount of time for leading obesity assets.
While these robust levels of weight loss are transforming the obesity field, most patients will benefit from sustained, clinically meaningful body weight loss over longer periods of time.
My hope is that we allow the space for development of novel therapies that can deliver on clinically meaningful weight loss efficacy while providing additional benefits to the patient, such as improved body composition and reduced cardiovascular & renal disease risk in the longer term.
The development of oral options for obesity therapies will also be important in order to have a global impact on the obesity epidemic.
Despite these challenges, there are clearly many opportunities in this field. What keeps you motivated and excited to continue pushing the boundaries?
I am inspired by the dedication and excellence of the scientists and colleagues I have the pleasure of working with every day. Research can be fraught with setbacks, but when an elusive breakthrough arises, it is exhilarating to know that your work might help patients someday. It is important to remember that basic science discoveries lay the foundation for subsequent development of medicines. We must continue to support essential basic science, both in industry and academia. I am also proud of being a mentor and giving back to early career scientists & inspiring them to persevere in the face of challenges.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of their employer.
Written by Renee Hurley, Founder, Life Sciences Obesity Collaborative
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