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Read our latest stories on the people and scientific innovations making a difference in patients’ lives.
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...
Science & Innovation
How Access to Biosimilar Drugs Could Boost Healthcare Equity
Access. Affordability. Health Equity. These are more than just industry buzzwords; they have real world implications which have a tremendous impact on patients’ lives. For instance, in 2018, racial health disparities were linked to $93 billion in excess medical costs.1 More recently, in 2021 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services delivered a report which measured healthcare quality, access, and disparity. It concluded that “compared with white groups, the number of measures that were...
Science & Innovation
Green Chemistry: A More Sustainable Approach to Medicine Development
Credit: Getty Images In 1962, Rachel Carson galvanized public interest in the environmental effects of chemicals. Her book "Silent Spring" detailed how common pesticides were killing not only insects, but also birds, larger animals, and even humans.1 Chemicals are essential to so many products people rely on in their daily lives, from phones and cars to medications. But these items can be produced in ways that have fewer negative effects on the environment, human health, and society. Since the...
Science & Innovation
Zinc Finger Transcription Factors: The On/Off Switch for Genes Inspired by Frogs
Have you ever noticed how effortlessly frogs cling to nearly every surface? Their sticky little fingers easily grab and hold onto just about anything they want. It turns out that the frogs have protein structures that do the same thing, and these structures could be the key to unlocking therapies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), two of the most debilitating neurological conditions affecting millions of people today. While studying the African clawed...
Science & Innovation
Why Are Some People Tastier to Mosquitoes Than Others?
Do mosquitos prefer a certain blood type? Maybe—but it’s not just one factor that influences why these winged pests are attracted to us and researchers can’t seem to agree on a definitive answer.1,2There are two kinds of people in the world: those who return from time in the outdoors covered in itchy mosquito bites and those who can spend hours in the same space and avoid getting bitten at all. Let's face it, mosquitoes are not equal opportunity feasters.So, what exactly makes some people more...
Science & Innovation
Maternal Immunization: Protecting Children from RSV and GBS
In the first few months of their lives, infants experience new sights, sounds, scents, and textures. During this time, they also make contact with new organisms. It takes up to three months for portions of infants’ still-developing immune systems to mature.1 During these early weeks and months, infants are too young to receive their first vaccines, leaving them vulnerable to developing serious infections.2Most pregnant people transmit antibodies to their developing fetuses naturally starting in...
Science & Innovation
Diabetes Breakthroughs Focus on Making Daily Life Easier
New research and emerging innovations are constantly evolving when it comes to helping patients manage, and maybe even prevent, Type 2 diabetes. The days of tender fingertips and painful injections may not be over, but alternatives are becoming more and more commonplace. Diabetes affects over 37 million people in the United States, slightly more than 11% of the population.1 Type 2 diabetes accounts for more than 95% of all diabetes.2 Game-changing breakthroughs, such as continuous glucose...
Science & Innovation
How to Manage High Blood Pressure (With the Help of a Few Giraffes)
People have long adored giraffes for their friendly faces, their tall and somewhat strange stature and, of course, those impossibly long necks. Now, researchers believe that giraffes may also offer physiological insights into certain health conditions. With a neck that can be longer than six feet, giraffes seemingly should struggle with the consequences of high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, because of their blood's substantial uphill climb from the heart to the brain. But they...
Living & Wellbeing
6 Mosquito Diseases That Can Be Deadly
Mosquitoes won’t just ruin a cookout or leave angry red welts on your skin after a blood meal; the little buzzers might also transmit serious diseases. Mosquitoes are "silent" feeders; their siphon-like mouthparts can quickly pierce human skin and feed on blood without causing any notice, says Patrick Kelly PhD, director of Global Epidemiology for Tick Borne Diseases for Pfizer. He calls it “highly efficient feeding that has been fine-tuned over millions of years.” Mosquitos have taken...
Purpose & Ideals
Why Medicine Flavor Matters in Drug Design, Especially for Kids
Medicines don’t work unless people take them. It sounds like an obvious statement. And yet, a large percentage of people—up to 50%1 even—struggle when it comes to swallowing medications. Medicine flavoring has been a big part of the problem. For more than a decade, Jeremy Bartlett, Ph.D., a Research Fellow with Pfizer Drug Product Design in Groton, Connecticut, has been working to solve that problem. “We work in pharmaceutical sciences, and if we develop a medicine you’re supposed to take and...
Living & Wellbeing
5 Things Worth Knowing About Biosimilars and Interchangeability
Biologic drugs have revolutionized disease management for many serious and chronic conditions including cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and psoriasis.1 Versions of biologic drugs, known as biosimilars, have helped improve access to these critical medicines for a wider patient population and lowered healthcare costs.2As biosimilars continue to hit the market in greater numbers, you’ll be hearing more about this class of drugs, as well as the “interchangeability” designation that...
Real People
Bill Sessa is Ready to Deliver Breakthroughs for Common Diseases
“Despite advances in treatment, cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer worldwide,” says Bill Sessa, who joined Pfizer as Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer for the Internal Medicine Research Unit (IMRU) in February 2022. “For decades, Pfizer has been at the forefront of advancing novel treatments for people living with cardiovascular and other conditions that affect a significant portion of the world’s population," Sessa says. "I’m thrilled to have the chance to...
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