I contribute.
Having this opportunity to make a trusted product that keeps people around the world from going blind, bringing hope and a chance at a better quality of life ... it's beautiful. We are very proud of what we do here. And it goes well beyond making Zithromax for the ITI. My parents, my children, sometimes they take medicines we produce right here in Puerto Rico. We are a part of the fabric of life.
Blinding Trachoma
Pfizer is a founding partner of the International Trachoma Initiative (ITI), a global program that recently marked its 15th anniversary of working to eliminate blinding trachoma as a public health concern. Through the ITI, we have donated more than 340 million doses of the antibiotic Zithromax® (azithromycin) to prevent and treat trachoma in support of the World Health Organization-led Global Alliance for the Elimination of Trachoma by the year 2020.
Access to Essential Health Care
We are committed to bringing more medicines to more people and helping to improve health around the world. Our social investments focus on effective and sustainable health care delivery for underserved patients, wherever they live, while empowering our colleagues, strengthening our stakeholder relationships and ultimately having a positive impact on society and our business.
Although price and enforcement of intellectual property rights are formidable barriers to access to medicines in poor populations, access is a complex issue, affected by many factors. For example, weak or non-existent health care infrastructures represent a significant impediment — perhaps the largest — to access.
We continue to explore and implement models and approaches tailored to the diverse needs of patients in different geographies. Seeking holistic approaches, we work closely with governments, health organizations and other stakeholders to address the complex challenges around improving health for the underserved.
For an interactive map of all our access-related programs, see here.
Strategies to
Improve Access
We are developing a portfolio of innovative business approaches as part of our strategy to increase access to our medicines and improve health care for underserved populations in both developed and developing countries. We are also taking innovative approaches to pricing in various markets, including tiered pricing both across and within countries, and portfolio offerings that address and balance customers' cost sensitivities.
This includes working closely with global institutional buyers who purchase medicines for the neediest of patients. For example,
Pfizer has long-standing business partnerships with both the U.S. Agency for International Development and the United Nations Population Fund to make our injectable contraceptive, Depo-Provera, available to women all across the globe, from sub-Saharan Africa to Southeast Asia to Latin America. We are working to expand our relationship with such institutional buyers in an effort to make a broad portfolio of our medicines accessible to as many low income patients as possible.
Prevenar 13
through 2025
to Pfizer Vaccines in
the Developing World
Today, more people benefit from safe and efficacious vaccines than ever before. As Pfizer works to usher in a new era of vaccine innovation — both to prevent and treat serious diseases — we are also working with governments and global health organizations to expand access to these prevention measures.
We are committed to helping protect millions of infants and young children in the developing world from pneumococcal disease; the leading cause of vaccine-preventable death in young children. Under the auspices of the GAVI (formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation) Alliance's Advance Market Commitment (AMC) for pneumococcal vaccines, which provides vaccines to the world's poorest countries on an accelerated, affordable and sustainable basis, Pfizer has committed to supply up to 740 million doses of Prevenar 13 through 2025. Prevenar 13® is available in more than 32 GAVI-eligible countries, with many additional launches planned. We are committed to helping meet the AMC's primary goal of reducing morbidity and mortality from pneumococcal disease and, specifically, to prevent an estimated 7 million childhood deaths by 2030.
Drug Development Strategies
WIPO Re:Search is an R&D consortium dedicated to developing new solutions — including medicines, vaccines and diagnostics — for neglected tropical diseases, malaria and tuberculosis. The consortium was created in partnership with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), BIO Ventures for Global Health and other leaders in the R&D pharmaceutical industry. The consortium, which was launched in 2011, has over 80 members, has 44 research agreements in place and has facilitated five arrangements whereby developing country scientists are hosted by developed country members of WIPO Re:Search. Pfizer is involved in several agreements where we are making specific contributions to advance external research programs targeting diarrhea, dengue fever and cerebral malaria.
Investment Fund (GHIF)
Global Health Investment Fund (GHIF) is a first-of-its-kind fund that will finance late-stage global health technologies that have the potential to save millions of lives in low-income countries. GHIF will help advance the most promising interventions to fight challenges such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and maternal and infant mortality, while expanding access to health care and fostering new possibilities that come from improved health in underserved communities. To help fill the funding gaps for late-stage clinical trials and development expenses, GHIF will invest in new drug and vaccine candidates, emerging diagnostic tools, child-friendly formulations of existing products, expanding manufacturing capacity and other applications that will help bring affordable technologies to those most in need. The Pfizer Foundation has committed a $5 million investment in GHIF as part of $94 million in initial financing for the fund, which was structured and/or supported by JPMorgan Chase & Co., The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, International Finance Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Storebrand.
Health Care Systems
Our investments include programs that provide direct assistance, such as product donations and steep discounts, to help bridge current gaps in health care delivery to various underserved populations. For example, we donate Diflucan® to fight opportunistic fungal infections associated with HIV and AIDS in the developing world.
Healthy Connections is a joint effort by Pro Mujer, Mayo Clinic, Sesame Workshop and Pfizer to promote disease prevention and family health among women and children in numerous countries across Latin America. Healthy Connections will use a new technology platform integrating mobile, web and video technology along with remote training and access to specialists.
Global Health Fellows is our renowned colleague volunteer program that places Pfizer colleagues in short-term assignments with international development organizations to work together to bring about meaningful and systematic improvements in health service delivery. During assignments, Fellows transfer their pharmaceutical and business expertise in ways that promote access, quality and efficiency of health care. In exchange, Fellows return with experience and relationships that help inform their ability to have an impact on pressing health concerns.
2013 marked the 10th anniversary of the GHF program. The GHF program has been recognized as a best-in-class
program model for its impact on global health, as well as its value to Pfizer colleagues and the business. To date, more than 350 colleagues have completed an estimated 345,000 hours in skills-based pro bono service, valued at more than $50 million with local partners, throughout the developing world.
Pfizer Helpful Answers®, Pfizer's family of patient assistance programs, helps eligible patients in the U.S. obtain their Pfizer prescriptions for free or at a savings and, for some medicines, offers reimbursement support services. In the past five years, from 2009 to 2013, the program has enabled more than three million uninsured or underinsured patients to get access to nearly 37.5 million Pfizer prescriptions.
Vitality is not an age-dependent notion: it is a fact of life for everyone. Challenge yourself to rethink what it means to age. Find inspiration, declare yourself and explore how people of every age are finding a better quality of life and a brighter view of tomorrow.
We support and are working with Community AGEnda; a program founded in 2012 in conjunction with Grantmakers in Aging. Community AGEnda focuses on helping communities across the U.S. become more age-friendly, meaning great places to grow up and grow old. Efforts include: improving mobility and walkability; informing regional planning efforts; designing affordable, accessible housing; promoting healthy lifestyles; improving access to public services; and increasing volunteer, intergenerational and social opportunities.
on Caregiving
Pfizer is developing a robust platform on caregiving to communicate the breadth of our portfolio for the growing caregiving market segment. As part of this initiative, we are co-launching a caregiving suite of offerings with AARP, the nation's largest organization focusing on the needs of
older Americans. These offerings help caregivers better manage their own time and health. Through a public-private partnership called ReACT (Respect A Caregiver's Time), Pfizer is active in supporting an online community of employers and caregivers addressing the challenges faced by employees who are also caregivers at home. ReACT provides practical advice for balancing work and caregiving, and advocates for policies that help employees and employers manage the nation's caregiving responsibilities.
Site Helping People Manage
Their Health
The fresh, distinctive experience at gethealthystayhealthy.com helps guide people to better health outcomes, providing patients and caregivers with practical information on a variety of important health topics. This site is designed to foster a healthy dialogue among patients, caregivers and health care providers, and consolidates access to Pfizer's medical expertise and information.
Millions of American adults have viewed television programming featuring Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall, our Chief Medical Officer
I own it.
Colleagues