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Programs & Initiatives

Three Pfizer Partnerships to Get the COVID-19 Vaccine into African Countries and Vaccinations into Arms

In 2020, as Pfizer and BioNTech were still developing the COVID-19 vaccine, Julie Jenson was thinking about how to distribute that vaccine to every country around the world, regardless of that country’s means. Jenson, who is Director of International Product Access for Pfizer’s Global Health and Social Impact Team, knew even in those early days that the ultracold storage demands and shipping requirements of the vaccine could pose challenges in reaching people living in remote areas of low- and...

Amid COVID-19 Global Pandemic, The Pfizer Foundation Helps IRC Pursue Urgent Expansion of Health Access in Humanitarian Settings

There are more displaced people today than at any other point in history.1As part of Pfizer’s mission to ensure better health is possible for everyone, everywhere, The Pfizer Foundation has partnered with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), an organization that helps people affected by humanitarian crises to survive, recover, and rebuild their lives in over 40 crisis-affected countries, as well as communities throughout Europe and the Americas.The IRC has decades of experience responding...

Inroads X Pfizer – A Progressive Partnership

Innovation isn’t easy. Otherwise everyone could do it.It takes many talented people putting their heads together to find inventive ways around some of the world’s biggest and toughest challenges. But, on top of being talented, everyone needs to be talented in different ways.If you send a group of people with similar backgrounds and experiences a challenge, chances are they’d approach it in the same way. But that is not how innovation happens. You need different people. From different backgrounds...

Purpose & Ideals

How The Pfizer Foundation is Partnering to Improve Health Outcomes for Black Youth

A conversation with Dr. Clyde Glenn, President of the Essie B. & William Earl Glenn Foundation for Better Living In Sunflower County, Mississippi, one of the poorest counties in the nation, The Pfizer Foundation partners at The Glenn Family Foundation (GFF) are working to improve health and life outcomes by addressing the social determinants of health impacting this community.  As defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, social determinants of health are conditions in the...

Albert Bourla Reflects on the One Year Anniversary of the COVID-19 Pandemic

One year. That’s how long it has been since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Sometimes it feels like the year went by in the blink of an eye. More often, however, it feels more like five years have gone by since many of us last gathered with loved ones, went to a movie theater or grabbed coffee with colleagues at the office. But regardless of how long it has felt to each of us, I think we can all agree it has been a year defined by loss, learning and an...

Albert Bourla On Ensuring Equitable Access to COVID-19 Vaccines

We have crossed another milestone in the fight against COVID-19. I am proud to announce that Pfizer and BioNTech have signed an advanced purchase agreement with COVAX for up to 40 million doses of our COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, subject to the execution of additional agreements under the COVAX structure. Since the very beginning of our vaccine development program, Pfizer and BioNTech have been firmly committed to equitable and affordable access of COVID-19 vaccines for people around the world...

Science & Innovation

What Makes an RNA Vaccine Different From a Conventional Vaccine?

Vaccines are one of the greatest health interventions ever developed. They’ve been cited as being as important to keeping communities healthy as having access to clean water and safe sanitation.1Through scientific investment and ingenuity, today we have multiple vaccine technology platforms that have helped us control and, in some cases, eradicate many healthcare challenges such as polio, river blindness, smallpox, and COVID-19, just to name a few.In 2020, messenger RNA, or mRNA for short, was...

Purpose & Ideals

Pfizer's Commitment to Supplier Diversity

While it’s easy to recognize the economic and social benefits that suppliers and their communities receive by doing business with a global biopharmaceutical company such as Pfizer, the benefits are far more mutual than they may seem. Applying innovative perspectives gained from working with suppliers that bring diversity, Pfizer is better able to improve patient care through these connections to a more inclusive group of communities, thus improving health for all. One way Pfizer has worked to...

Purpose & Ideals

The Pfizer Foundation Invests in Community-Based Solutions to Combat the Threat of Infectious Diseases

Globally, infectious diseases are responsible for an estimated seven million deaths annually1 and are a leading cause of disability, particularly among young children and marginalized populations,2 often perpetuating the cycle of poverty.3 This is one of the reasons why The Pfizer Foundation* is dedicated to accelerating innovative solutions and improving health systems to help address the urgent threat of infectious diseases. Through the Global Health Innovation Grants (GHIG) program, now in...

Purpose & Ideals

Pfizer Partners with Wellcome to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance in Sub-Saharan Africa

As part of Pfizer’s longstanding history of fighting infectious diseases and reducing health disparities for people around the world, we are excited to announce a new partnership with Wellcome, an independent foundation, to help tackle the growing public health crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR occurs when bacteria evolve to resist the effectiveness of antibiotics, making previously treatable diseases difficult or impossible to treat. Without action, it is expected to lead to the...

Purpose & Ideals

Pfizer Partners with Direct Relief to Provide Critical COVID-19 Supplies to Hospitals

Fighting back against a global pandemic requires cooperation, collaboration, and teamwork. As part of Pfizer’s broader COVID-19 response, we are proud to partner with Direct Relief, a humanitarian aid organization dedicated to improving the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies, across all 50 United States and 80 countries. Pfizer has always been committed to deploying our resources in times of crisis, and we leveraged our long-standing partnership with Direct Relief to...

The Table of Everything: A Scientist’s Quest to Make Human Genetic Data More User-Friendly

Since the human genome was first sequenced in 2003, scientists have collected a wealth of genetic information that could potentially be used to help create new medicines. Remarkably, as sequencing technology gets faster and cheaper, the amount of human genetic data now doubles every seven months. But in order to keep pace with the rapid generation of genetic information and to make use of it in drug discovery, this information needs to be made more accessible for scientists of all stripes, not...