Article

Living & Wellbeing

A Closer Look at NASH

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a growing public health issue, affecting an estimated three to five percent of the global adult population.[i] It typically progresses slowly with few – if any – obvious or visible symptoms[ii],[iii], making it a largely unrecognized and underdiagnosed disease. Many physicians are not intimately familiar with NASH, and, for many patients, their diagnosis is the first time they’ve heard the term. NASH, by definition, is a serious, progressive form of non...

Purpose & Ideals

Connecting Patients to the Resources They Need

At Pfizer, we believe that patients should have access to the medicines they need. Which is why, for more than 30 years, Pfizer RxPathways has helped connect patients to a range of assistance programs that offer insurance support, co-pay help,[1] and medication for free or at a savings. Each year, we receive emails, cards, and phone calls from patients and caregivers across the country expressing their appreciation and gratitude for our services and support. Here are excerpts from just a...

Living & Wellbeing

Exposing RA Through Photography: The Inspiration

We’re dedicated to sharing the perspectives of people affected by chronic inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis (RA). That’s why we created Arthritis.com, a place where people living with RA can find inspiration, lifestyle advice, tools, and disease information. Following is an article from Arthritis.com contributor Angela Lundberg who is living with RA.Photography has been a passion of mine ever since my first photography class. Feeling the weight and heft of a “real” camera in my...

Living & Wellbeing

Explaining Your Rheumatoid Arthritis to Loved Ones

We’re dedicated to sharing the perspectives of people affected by chronic inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis (RA). That’s why we created Arthritis.com, a place where people living with RA can find inspiration, lifestyle advice, tools, and disease information. Following is an article from Arthritis.com contributor Mariah Leach who is living with RA.   Being a parent is always a demanding job, but being a parent who lives with arthritis presents some additional challenges. My...

Next-Gen Scientific Changemakers: Following 'Good Science' to Attack Cancer on All Fronts

After earning her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis in 2010, Megan Kaneda was looking for a lab to do post-doc research. Her graduate studies focused primarily on nanoparticle drug delivery. But after reading a paper on the recruitment of immune cells into tumors by Judith Varner, a professor of pathology at the University of California San Diego, Kaneda switched paths in order to work with her in the emerging field of immunotherapy. “Honestly, I saw her...

Cytokines of Interest: Understanding Their Paths to Disease

In the diverse universe of cytokines, signaling proteins secreted by our cells that affect nearly every biological process in the body, there is a specific subset that scientists pay extra attention to for their role in autoimmune diseases, cancer, and other conditions.  What sets apart these "cytokines of interest" — 57 in total — from others is that they’re dependent on a pair of enzymes called Janus kinases (JAKs) to transmit their messages to a cell.  And in recent years, scientists have...

The Evolution of Inflammation

Hunting wooly mammoths with stone age technology took guts. If the archaeological record is to be believed, it also took an incredible ability to bounce back from serious injuries. Stone age burial sites are filled with examples of early humans who recovered from broken bones, dislocated limbs and infected wounds, all without any help from modern medicine. The active lifestyle required to feed oneself led to frequent injuries and infections, which means that the people who survived to pass...

Matching Drugs to Diseases: Advances in Targeting JAKs Leading to New Autoimmune Therapies

Janus kinases (JAKs) named after Janus, the Roman two-faced god of duality, are enzymes with two “faces,” or domains, that play a key role in signal transduction of cytokines, the molecular messengers that trigger the inflammatory and immune responses. Scientific discoveries related to JAKs in recent years have led to novel treatments for autoimmune diseases and myeloproliferative disorders, a group of conditions where the bone marrow produces too many blood cells.   In the early 2010s, the...

A Drug Safety Scientist Inspired by the Migrant Farmers of California

Sometimes it only takes one inspiring educator to set you on your career path. As an undergrad at UC Davis in the late 1970s, Jon Cook had a charismatic professor who sparked his interest in the field of toxicology, which studies the safety effects of drugs and chemicals on living organisms. “This guy was huge; he was 6 feet, 6 inches tall and 300 pounds and played football in college. He was so jovial and had so much enthusiasm,” says Cook, Chief Toxicology Scientist at Pfizer’s Groton...

Inside the Toxicology Lab: From Guardians of the Genome to Bottleneck Breakers and Beyond

When it comes to creating new medicines, the stories that most often reach the public are the discoveries of new biological pathways or novel compounds. But in the nearly decade-long journey a medicine takes to get from the lab to patients, drug safety studies are an integral, though often behind-the-scenes, part of the process. We recently spoke with Pfizer scientists who work in various areas of toxicology to learn more about the critical jobs they do to get new medicines to patients. Here are...

How Does It Feel to Have Sickle-Cell Disease?: When Listening to Patients Gives Researchers Clues

Molecular biologists certainly have the insider’s view of a disease. They know (or try to find out) how it operates in the body on a cellular level. But the mechanisms of a particular condition aren’t the only thing that matters to these scientists. Starting “outside,” say by learning more about what it’s like to have a disease, and how people generally cope with symptoms such as pain, can help a researcher develop treatments that truly address patients’ needs. Debra Pittman, a research fellow...

In Search of a Better Biomarker: Why Studying Liver Enzymes Matters for Drug Safety

If you’ve ever had a liver function test as part of an annual physical, you may know that the exam screens for certain biomarkers, like liver enzymes in the blood. If these substances are found to be elevated, it may mean that you have a liver disease or have been exposed to some medications or environmental toxins.  Liver biomarkers are also important tools in the drug development process. Before a drug can be tested in humans, it must be studied for potential safety risks, including the liver...