Pfizer's Multicultural Health Equity Collective Marks 10 Years of Progress

A decade ago, despite many existing partnerships with multicultural groups, Pfizer recognized a need to address persistent health inequities more holistically and work alongside organizations and leaders to truly understand and help address the unique and evolving needs of marginalized communities. To be successful, Pfizer sought to demonstrate behaviors that earn trust and take initiative to establish long-term relationships with organizations that could harness the power of community and partnership to help create sustainable change.

In 2014, Pfizer established what was then known as the “Pfizer Multicultural Center of Excellence” to strengthen relationships with national and local organizations serving marginalized and underserved communities and help expand access to care, increase health literacy, and support advocacy efforts.

In the last 10 years, this iniative has evolved to become a cooperative of Pfizer colleagues and 40+ diverse nonprofit partners and advocates, called the Pfizer Multicultural Health Equity Collective (The Collective), which serves as a convener across the healthcare ecosystem, creating space for diverse organizations to collaborate, learn and act together to make better health possible for the communities they serve.

As trusted and invaluable partners, The Collective’s work is guided by the Pfizer Multicultural Advisory Council (PMAC)—a core set of leaders from multicultural organizations who help inform The Collective’s priorities, engage with Pfizer on vital health and policy issues, and provide counsel on specific Pfizer initiatives.

Our Collective Impact

Together The Collective partners have hosted over 660 community outreach events, reaching approximately 1.5 million people across the United States since 2014. These engagements have ranged from partner conferences, health education workshops, community health fairs and more.

To meet communities where they are, for example, The Collective has partnered with the Hispanic Federation and the National Urban League to help expand access to quality healthcare for marginalized and underserved communities by facilitating culturally preventive care interventions. Through the “Yo Me Cuido” and “Take Action for Health” health fairs, The Collective supports local communities and provides direct access to free health screenings, referrals to medical care and culturally relevant health information. These health fairs have reached more than 28,000 individuals across 15 cities in the U.S.—and growing.

Thanks to the foundational relationships in place, when Pfizer and BioNTech took on the challenge to develop a vaccine in 2020 to help protect against COVID-19, The Collective partners answered an urgent call to action to engage multicultural communities in the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 clinical trials. The members fed into messaging and recruitment approaches and helped raise awareness among communities historically underrepresented in clinical trials. Their guidance and grassroots efforts helped ensure greater representation in the trials and demonstrated the importance of multisectoral engagement in building community trust across diverse patient populations.

The Collective Takes Bolder Action

As the world grappled with one of the biggest public health crises in our lifetime, existing health inequities exacerbated the impact of the pandemic on historically marginalized and underserved communities. Building on community insights—gathered by surveying health care professionals of color on how to accelerate progress, in partnership with the National Association of Hispanic Nurses, National Black Nurses Association, and National Hispanic Medical Association, among others—The Collective evolved its efforts to focus on evidence-informed solutions across four key areas, including Healthcare Facilities & Delivery, Research & Data, Workforce Pathways and Policy.

Galvanized by the need to create lasting change, The Collective partnered with The Century Foundation, Morehouse School of Medicine, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, and the National Minority Quality Forum, to host its inaugural Health Equity in Action Summit in 2022. The Summit gathered over 100 health equity leaders across the healthcare ecosystem to identify solutions to disrupt systemic racism. 
 

Stemming from the Summit, over 30 multi-disciplinary health equity experts partnered to develop ‘An Action Guide to Disrupt Inequitable Health Outcomes’, a community-developed tool providing informative cases, actionable steps and practical resources for those seeking to drive health equity.

Building on insights from the Health Equity in Action Summit and Action Guide, The Collective has sought to turn commitment into action by launching the Communities in Action for Health Equity grants program in partnership with Pfizer’s Institute of Translational Equitable Medicine (ITEM). In 2023, more than $2M was invested in 11 nonprofit organizations to conduct community-driven research, learning and intervention projects across the U.S. that are addressing systemic drivers of racial and ethnic health disparities. The awarded projects support communities facing significant health burdens and seek to scale up or establish actionable strategies that address the root causes of disparities across the healthcare system.

Looking Ahead

Everyone, everywhere deserves the opportunity to attain their full health potential. While achieving health equity requires multi-generational change, through The Collective and centering its investments on the communities most impacted, Pfizer is seeking to drive meaningful progress today.