Article

Designing Medicines to Go Where They're Needed: Lessons from Liver Targeting

Designing transformational medicines for patients requires them to be efficacious and safe.  Sometimes, drug molecules have the desired effect in the organ of treatment and undesired effects in other organs, meaning one way to achieve a safer medicine is through directing the drug molecule to the place it is needed and minimizing exposure in the rest of the body. When you take a medicine, how does it “know” exactly where to go in the body to provide a therapeutic effect and which organs to avoid...

Real People

Nanotechnology Opens New Frontier in Cancer Treatment

Science fiction is becoming a scientific reality when it comes to potential cancer treatments. Nanotechnology has long been a subject of intrigue in the sci-fi world. Now, Pfizer scientists are investigating a (working on, whatever you like) form of nanotechnology called nanoparticles, and they're using those particles—which are so minuscule that 1 million of them could fit in a single cell—to develop a new method of targeting tumors. With nanoparticles, the goal is to create more precise and...

Purpose & Ideals

The Value of Vaccines in Disease Prevention: A Global Perspective

Vaccinations are an essential tool in our fight against infectious disease. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), vaccination has greatly reduced the burden of infectious disease globally

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...

Science & Innovation

A Picture of Pain: What Life is Really Like with Chronic Pain

Almost everyone has experienced some type of acute, or temporary, pain in their lives. Acute pain is a protective response to tissue injury that typically resolves with the healing process and lasts less than three months. However, for one in five people around the world, their pain persists for longer than three months and is considered chronic. ,Some people may suffer from diseases or disorders that cause their chronic pain, while others may have an injury or accident that causes long-term or...

Science & Innovation

Collection and Use of Real-World Data Continues to Grow Around the World

Conducting real-world data (RWD) analyses to generate real-world evidence (RWE) is a growing practice in the healthcare community. RWE provides helpful information that complements clinical trial findings and may help fill knowledge gaps related to how a medication is used in real-world medical settings. These data consist of de-identified patient-related data collected from various sources, including but not limited to, anonymized electronic medical records, claims databases, health surveys...

Speeding Up the Drug Approval Process—and What That Means for Patients

Drug development is often a long and risky endeavor often taking 10-15 years of clinical trials. For patients anxiously awaiting the next generation of life-saving and sustaining therapies made possible by exciting advancements in molecular genetics, immunology and rare disease research, that wait is too long. Fortunately, regulatory agencies across the globe are leveraging the latest science to speed up that process for exciting new therapies for areas of unmet medical need. Through innovative...

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...

Real People

The People Behind Your Vaccine

Vaccines have played an important role in significantly reducing the global burden of several serious infectious diseases. In fact, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), vaccination is one of the most successful and cost-effective public health interventions available.1  Vaccinations are a medical marvel, but have you stopped to think that behind every syringe is a steadfast, dedicated team—a collective, synchronized effort of people, processes, and resources—all working towards a...

The Winding Road to Discovery: How Unexpected Data Led to Novel Insights into Cancer Treatment

The path to discovery rarely follows a straight line.In 2015, as a post-doc researcher at Pfizer, Michael Arensman got an early lesson in this maxim. At the time, he set out to study the protein xCT, a transporter that carries nutrients into cells, and its role in T-cell proliferation. As a young scientist, he was eager to have his results published and contribute to the field of immunology.But about a year into the study, his hypothesis failed. He took his unexpected results, however, and...

Next-Gen Scientific Changemakers: An Infectious Disease Specialist on a Mission to Develop Vaccines

Soldiers, firefighters and police officers likely come to mind when you think of professions that require a good amount of courage. But Iona Munjal, a physician and pediatric infectious disease specialist who helps design and oversee vaccine clinical trials for Pfizer, argues scientists should be counted among this group, too. “You have to be brave in research,” she says. “When you’re out there pushing the envelope, you have to expect to fail more times than you succeed — that’s an essential...