Our Sustainable Policies & Practices

Governance & Ethics

At Pfizer, we understand that good governance is essential to the success of our business and we conduct ourselves accordingly.

Corporate Governance

Pfizer is committed to exercising strong corporate governance practices. We believe that good governance promotes the long-term interests of our shareholders, strengthens Board and management accountability and improves our standing as a trusted member of society. We maintain and enhance our long record of excellence in corporate governance by regularly refining our corporate governance policies and procedures to reflect evolving practices and issues raised by our shareholders and other stakeholders.

Our governance structure and processes are guided by key governance documents, including our Corporate Governance Principles and Committee Charters, which govern the operation of the Board of Directors and its Committees in the execution of their responsibilities. While the governance practices and structures of an organization are very important, we believe the key to an effective governance structure is an engaged and experienced Board of Directors that is committed to protecting and enhancing shareholder value. We are fortunate to have a Board that is diverse, active, independent-minded and collegial, and provides valuable insights with respect to oversight of management and our overall strategic direction. Our Board consists entirely of Independent Directors, with the exception of Ian Read, Pfizer’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Albert Bourla, Pfizer's Chief Operating Officer.

Ethical Sales and Marketing

We are committed to promoting Pfizer's products responsibly, educating patients and providers about their appropriate use and reporting about our business practices in a fashion that promotes transparency.

Read more about our Ethical Sales and Marketing

Direct-to-Consumer Advertising in the U.S.

Pfizer’s strict internal standards, going beyond compliance with all applicable laws, have been developed to help ensure that the information we share with patients is scientifically sound, balanced, easy to understand and helpful in encouraging them to consult with a health care professional.

Read more about our Direct-to-Consumer Advertising

Compliance

Pfizer believes that compliance with all applicable laws is integral to our ability to serve society. We train colleagues extensively in compliance and have an organizational structure designed to help ensure good oversight of our colleagues, vendors and business partners.

Read more about our Compliance

Disclosing Payments to Health Care Professionals

Pfizer does not pay health care professionals for prescribing our medicines or as an inducement for promoting our products. We believe it is appropriate and ethical to fairly compensate health care professionals for work they do on our behalf.

Read more about our Disclosing Payments to Health Care Professionals

Human Rights

In 2017, Pfizer worked with Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), a global nonprofit organization that works with its partners to build a just and sustainable world, to complete a Human Rights Impact Assessment. The report identified our most relevant human rights risks and opportunities across our various business units and operations globally, as well as analyzing in depth how our programs aimed at access to medicines address specific human rights expectations of our stakeholders.

Addressing human rights issues is important to us and we have worked with BSR to categorize relevant rights into priority impact areas, which will help us address these issues across the organization:

  1. Access to health
  2. Social & environmental product impacts
  3. Ethics in research and development
  4. Fair business practices
  5. Supply chain management

Pfizer supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. We were an early signatory to the United Nations (UN) Global Compact – a document that asks companies to embrace universal principles and to partner with the UN – that endorses 10 principles on human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. Pfizer is also one of the original founding member companies of the “Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative,” a nonprofit organization established to promote continuous improvement across the pharmaceutical supply chain in the areas of labor, ethics, environmental, health and safety responsible procurement practices.

Read more about our Human Rights, including our updated policy