Our business, our purpose

Manufacturing & Supply Chain Excellence

At Pfizer, our purpose is to bring innovative medicines and vaccines to patients and healthy individuals. To meet that commitment, we take a rigorous scientific approach to our global manufacturing and supply network. With 58 manufacturing sites around the world under Pfizer Global Supply (PGS), we harness data to inform our decisions and processes, creating a highly efficient manufacturing and supply network that continually optimizes the way we deliver medicines to our patients. In 2017, we continued to strive to set the industry standard for quality, safety and value in the development and manufacturing of our medicines.

Leveraging Science to Create Supply Chain Solutions

Pfizer’s goal is for patients to receive uninterrupted access to our medicines and vaccines. We continue to use operational and supply chain data from enterprise systems to identify processes to better meet the needs of patients. In 2017, this information helped us address drug shortages of several injectable medicines used in hospitals and other clinical settings. Within PGS, our manufacturing teams work with health care bodies to put solutions in place to help expedite supply recovery for important medicines. One critical element of Pfizer supply recovery activities has been providing scientific data to regulatory authorities to support extended-use dating for products in the supply chain. We are also working to minimize supply shortages in the future by investing in advanced technology and capabilities.

A Heritage and Future of Manufacturing Cures

Pfizer's long heritage of creating cures is built on outstanding innovation not only in research and development but also in manufacturing.

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Transforming Molecules to Reach Millions

Did you know it can take 400 raw materials, 581 manufacturing steps, 678 different quality tests, 1,700 colleagues and two-and-a-half years to manufacture a single dose of a vaccine?

Watch how our colleagues at the Sanford, North Carolina, manufacturing site and Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, distribution center come together to create and distribute one dose of a vaccine.

Manufacturing and Supply Chain Contributes to U.S. Economic Growth

American Pharmaceutical Innovation and Job Creation

Pfizer has a long history of manufacturing in the U.S., and since our founding nearly 170 years ago, we have been proudly headquartered in New York. In the past five years, we invested $2.1 billion in U.S. manufacturing, and our 15 U.S. manufacturing sites, employing more than 11,000 people, help produce almost 60 percent of our medicines.

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Bringing Manufacturing Jobs to North Carolina

To mark National Manufacturing Day in October, Pfizer and local political leaders joined Sanford, North Carolina, colleagues to celebrate expansion plans for the new state-of-the-art gene therapy facility under construction.

The event featured a View Into the Future, including an exhibit and virtual tour of the future manufacturing facility.

"Pfizer has a rich history of manufacturing life-saving medicines – dating back to 1849. It is an honor, on behalf of Pfizer Global Supply, to have our Sanford facility represent Pfizer for Manufacturing Day. We build on that rich history and look to the future, every day, and today we celebrate a view into the future of our new gene therapy facility. We’re very excited about it and the impact it will have on patients."

Mary Oates Vice President, Innovative Operations and Network Excellence, Pfizer Global Supply

Learn more about how the biopharmaceutical industry in America is contributing to global health and generating economic value for local communities in Forbes.

Read more about our work in vaccines and gene therapy

Reaching Patients in Saudi Arabia with Locally Made Products for the First Time

This year, PGS completed construction of a new manufacturing facility in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC). The new site – the first for Pfizer in Saudi Arabia – will allow patients to access Pfizer medicines, such as Lipitor® (atorvastatin calcium), Lyrica® (pregabalin) and Zithromax® (azithromycin). Our site in Saudi Arabia will enable us to manufacture, sell and distribute products that positively impact local patients.

The Saudi Arabia site will be the first Pfizer plant in the Africa-Middle East region to serialize Pfizer medicines and assign and apply a unique identification code to each unit of sale. Serialization helps further secure our supply chain. This exacting method is a critical factor to help ensure that patients have secure access to our quality medicines.

Collaborating to Modernize Glass Packaging

In July, Pfizer, Corning Incorporated and Merck & Co., Inc. introduced Corning Valor™ Glass as an innovative glass packaging alternative that enhances the storage and delivery of injectable medicines in vials and cartridges. Valor Glass is expected to provide more reliable access to medicines essential to public health.

To inform the development of this new offering, we leveraged our deep scientific knowledge of pharmaceutical formulations and complex manufacturing processes. The Corning Valor Glass packaging offers superior chemical durability, strength and damage resistance, which enables increased throughput and more reliable access to state-of-the-art medicines for patients, while maintaining a high level of quality assurance.

The White House Office of American Innovation has encouraged the initiative as a model of cross-industry collaboration and economic investment. Pfizer’s chairman and chief executive officer, Ian Read, met with the CEOs of Merck and Corning at a White House event in July to discuss the progress made as a result of their collaboration.

“We joined forces with Corning to advance this revolutionary new glass for medicines critical to public health. Our initial trial results with Valor Glass show promise and we are working with Corning to assess the full potential of this glass solution on products at several of our manufacturing sites. This collaborative effort supports our focus on bringing the highest quality products to patients.”

Ian ReadChairman and Chief Executive Officer

Mastering the Science of Donating Medicine

Pfizer earned a spot in the Guinness World Records in 2017 by contributing to the largest donation of medicines ever made in a 24-hour period – one of the most impactful donations of its kind.

Representing Pfizer, colleagues from Intercompany Operations in Zaventem, Belgium, teamed up with other pharmaceutical companies from around the world to improve the lives of patients suffering from Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), which affect more than 1 billion people in the world's poorest communities. Pfizer contributed to this record-breaking initiative by donating Zithromax® to more than 30 countries.

The participating companies donated more than 207 million doses of medicines to help treat NTDs. These medicines help millions of people across the world lead healthier, more productive lives and we are proud to contribute to the science of meaningful giving.

Becoming a Leader in Environmentally Efficient Manufacturing Sites

Our new manufacturing site in Suzhou, China, was recently certified as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum, an exceptional achievement for a pharmaceutical campus. LEED is a rating system devised by the U.S. Green Building Council to evaluate the environmental performance of a building and encourage sustainable design. The cross-functional team that supported the design, development and construction of this site was committed to building a green and environmentally sustainable facility and looked for ways to integrate our commitment to the environment into every detail. This tremendous achievement aligns with our broader commitment to reducing our environmental footprint across our internal and external network.

Read more about our Environment, Health & Safety work

Inspiring Youth to Join the World of Modern Manufacturing

We are committed to the science of learning and inspiring students to join the important world of manufacturing. At Pfizer's manufacturing facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, we work closely with local community organizations, grade schools and high schools, four-year universities, community colleges and trade schools to help educate students about dynamic careers in science and manufacturing, and to raise awareness of the skilled trade training and development programs we offer. Through partnerships with organizations like Communities in Schools of Kalamazoo, Pfizer colleagues engage students in hands-on activities to explore science, technology, engineering, math and skilled trades-related careers.

In September, Pfizer partnered with the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) on the “Creators Wanted” campaign, a U.S. initiative that addresses workforce challenges by recruiting individuals to consider a career in manufacturing.

“As a U.S.-based, global leader in the discovery and manufacturing of life-saving medicines, Pfizer is proud to partner with the NAM on this important initiative. Our PGS team includes skilled tradespeople, production colleagues, line operators, process engineers, quality control professionals, engineers, chemists and countless others. We are committed to manufacturing high-quality medicines and making them available to patients when and where they are needed. I am honored to see our colleagues’ dedication and commitment highlighted.”

Kirsten Lund-Jurgensen, Ph.D.Executive Vice President and President, Pfizer Global Supply (PGS)

As part of the campaign, our Kalamazoo colleagues talked about why they are passionate about manufacturing, the unique science of engineering and the innovation they bring to their job every day.

How our work in this area is supporting the Sustainable Development Goals

Goal 3 : Good Health & Well-Being

Goal 8 : Decent Work and Economic Growth

Goal 9 : Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Goal 12 : Responsible Consumption and Production

Goal 13 : Climate Action

Goal 17 : Partnership for the Goals