Pfizer has created the following position papers, policies and case studies to ensure and demonstrate its ethical development of new medicines. Indeed, all of our clinical research must be reviewed by a qualified Independent Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board.
We strive to maintain the highest ethical, scientific, and clinical standards in all our clinical research around the world. We regularly review our science policies to align them with Pfizer's vision, values, and goals, and with our stakeholders' evolving values.
Read Pfizer's statement on the Declaration of Helsinki and the Ethical Conduct of Clinical Studies.
Inclusion of emerging markets in development has been ongoing for more than 10 years. This has reduced development times for new medicines, increased knowledge transfer and scientific collaboration, and improved access to new therapies. Learn more about how Pfizer ensures our trials are done ethically and to international standards.
Pfizer’s Bioethics Advisory Panel (BAP) consists of six external advisors who meet approximately three times a year at Pfizer’s New York headquarters. The BAP reports on emerging medical, scientific and ethical issues globally, to help inform the company’s clinical research planning and policies and ensure that the clinical trials Pfizer sponsors are conducted according to the highest ethical standards.
Meetings of the Bioethics Advisory Panel cover topics such as ethical considerations and patients’ rights in conducting clinical trials in developing areas; the role of accreditation in positioning research sites to conduct clinical trial; and how informed consent should be structured in an environment of broader clinical data sharing and access, including the use of biological data and material in research.
The BAP is sponsored by Pfizer’s Chief Medical Officer and Pfizer’s internal Clinical Medical Excellence and Innovation board.
Below are 12 case studies illustrating ethical challenges in the conduct of international clinical research and Pfizer's approach. This series of studies is designed to address topics arising throughout the research process:
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Quality Management in Clinical Trials |
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Cultural Issues in Informed Consent |
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Informed Consent: Why and How? |
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Malaria Treatment: Better than the Standard of Care |
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Research on Research: Learning about Phase 1 Trials |
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Partnering for HIV Prevention — The Case of Maraviroc |
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Disclosure of Clinical Trials Information |
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Developing a Stem Cell Research Policy |
Written by the Director of the Clinical Trial Centre of the University of Hong Kong and edited by him and the President & CEO of the Association for Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP), this manual was sponsored by Pfizer to help acquaint new research ethics committee members about clinical trial design, human subject protection, and good clinical practice (GCP) requirements. The manual addresses research ethics and global standards for clinical trials. The author-editors, Professor Johan Karlberg and Dr. Marjorie Speers, reviewed the contents of this manual with a board of leading experts in research ethics.
This concept paper describes ideas in progress, discussed at a January 2010 Summit Meeting convened by Pfizer, across five domains: research ethics committees/trial review, data and safety monitoring, site and investigator selection, site monitoring, and improving clinical trial agreements. Pfizer funded this work to address challenges associated with the globalization of clinical research. The Project has involved experts from large and small companies, clinical research organizations, non-industry sponsors of research, non-industry researchers and bioethicists, and other stakeholders. Opportunities to enhance the planning and conduct of multi-regional trials especially multi-regional clinical trials (MRCTs) involving developing-world countries, are described in the attached report.
