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Read our latest stories on the people and scientific innovations making a difference in patients’ lives.
7 FAQs About Generic Drugs
1. What is a generic drug? A generic drug is loosely defined as a “copy” of a brand name drug. The active ingredient or drug content is identical or “bioequivalent,” and works in the body the same way as the brand name drug. Such drugs must show that their active ingredients get to the bloodstream at the same time and to the same extent as the brand name version. Generics are similar to brand name drugs in several other ways. These include the quality of the product, how it’s absorbed in...
10 Ways to Reduce Medication Errors
Medicines can help you feel better when you’re sick. But if used incorrectly, medicines can also cause harm. Medication errors, such as receiving the wrong therapy or using an incorrect dosage of a drug, can potentially lead to serious outcomes. You may be able to help reduce your risk for medication errors. Here are some tips to consider: Tell your doctor every medicine you’re taking. It’s one way to help prevent drug interactions between your medicines, which can be dangerous. Use this pers...
The Importance of Women and Diversity in Clinical Trials
Clinical trials are key to finding and learning if medical treatments are safe and effective. These treatments include medicines, medical devices, procedures, and lifestyle changes, such as diet. All new medical treatments must go through clinical trials before they can be approved by the FDA. Despite the importance that comes from clinical trials there is a drawback: the people who enroll in trials do not always represent key patient populations like women and minorities. Read on to learn more...
Understanding Fibromyalgia
Over 5 million Americans suffer from fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition that causes widespread muscle tenderness and fatigue. Still, it is a disorder that’s rarely talked about. In fact, some people with chronic pain or soreness can spend years seeing doctor after doctor before finally being diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Part of the problem is that the symptoms of the condition can’t be seen and are difficult to describe. These symptoms also tend to come and go and sometimes are...
Answers To Your Questions About Prescription Medicine
Have you ever wanted to ask a question about your medicine? But maybe you thought it was a silly question that was not worth bothering your healthcare provider about. Below are answers to some common questions you may have about your medicine. Always talk with your healthcare provider about taking, storing, and disposing of your specific medicines.Q: I’m experiencing a symptom that I think may be caused by my medicine. Can I take less of it?A: You should never change the amount of medicine you...
Real People
An Early Passion for Science and Public Health Inspires Adriana’s Work
Meet Adriana. She leads a team that manages the samples collected from Pfizer’s ongoing clinical trials. For her, Pfizer is more than just the company she works for, it’s family. Adriana first got her start in high school as a summer student worker – and since then, has had the opportunity to work on a number of “major vaccines that really have had an impact on public health.” A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ADRIANA AND HER TEAM Today, Adriana and her team of about 30 colleagues receive...
Real People
Sandy Focuses on Diversity in Our Clinical Trials
Meet Sandy. She is responsible for managing diversity in Pfizer’s clinical trials, striving for statistically diverse participant pools. For those who are unfamiliar with what clinical trials are, Sandy explains that a clinical trial is a “research study where we are recruiting participants to evaluate the safety or efficacy of a medicine or vaccine before it’s readily available.” As part of these research studies, it’s incredibly important to include people who are affected by...
Real People
“The Ice Man” - The Pfizer Colleague & Dad Who Keeps Our Medicines and Vaccines on Ice
Meet James. He is responsible for developing the packaging and distributions strategies needed to move our medicines and vaccines directly from manufacturing sites down to various points of use globally (i.e. hospitals, long term care facilities, pharmacies, etc.). Unbeknownst to most people, all medicines and vaccines require some type of temperature control. Some need to be kept at room temperature, others refrigerated, and some must be frozen. The packaging that James specifically works on...
AI in Drug Safety: Building the Elusive ‘Loch Ness Monster’ of Reporting Tools
Whenever a patient takes a drug and has an unexpected side effect — from minor problems like a runny nose to more serious ones that require hospitalization — pharma companies are legally required to report this information, known as an adverse event (AE), to regulatory agencies. Within the pharmaceutical industry, AE reporting is a critical and time-consuming part of ensuring the safe and effective use of medicines by patients. Pharmacovigilance employees process a growing number of cases...
The Rise of RNA: The Cellular Workhorse Behind a New Class of Next-Gen Therapies
In a new Get Science series, we’re exploring how recent insights into RNA’s role in a variety of biological processes are helping scientists develop promising scientific breathroughs that may lead to new medicines for diseases, such as cancer and autoimmune conditions. A workhorse in the factory Among RNA’s most important roles is the transcription and delivery of genetic instructions from the nucleus to the cytoplasm where proteins are made. RNA also has catalytic, structural and...
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...
Partnering to Turn the 'Undruggable' into Promising Targets
In the world of drug discovery, “undruggable” targets are like the stubborn children of biology, proteins that are considered too challenging to bind with conventional molecules. With the rapid pace of scientific advancement, however, the “undruggable” targets of yesterday now represent a promising new area of research. Such is the case with deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs), a family of some 100 proteins that play a role in regulating the right balance of proteins in cells. In 2017, academic...
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