Articles

Pfizer Goes Live in SXSW’s Podcast Lounge

For more than a quarter of a century, SXSW has been a must-do event on the calendars of consumers, celebrities, and cognoscenti. Part conference, part festival, it’s where people gather to learn about the latest trends in tech, media, and entertainment.Over the years, our leadership has showcased the latest scientific breakthroughs and shared our unique perspectives on the present – and future – of healthcare to the event’s thousands of attendees.This year, we hosted a takeover of SXSW’s Podcast...

January Social Media Round-Up—Celebrating 175, Discussing AI, and Attending CES 2024

One month into the new year and Pfizer is already got plenty to show for it.January’s social media round-up features a dispatch from Las Vegas’s CES conference, our CTO’s insight into artificial intelligence’s impact on cancer, and an impassioned pleas from our CEO.Catch up below:CEO Albert Bourla kicks off Pfizer’s 175th anniversary celebration:https://www.linkedin.com/posts/albert-bourla_2024-marks-a-significant-year-for-pfizer-activity-7150126029393580032-ES_A?utm_source=share&utm_medium...

Pfizer Launches VaxAssist, to Help Individual’s Assess Respiratory Vaccine Eligibility

As more respiratory vaccinations have become available in recent years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to provide annual guidelines for common respiratory illnesses—COVID-19, pneumococcal pneumonia, influenza (the flu), and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)—to help ensure eligible populations are seeking vaccinations, especially during respiratory illness season.1,2,3,4,5,6 Pfizer has launched VaxAssist, an online tool that helps adults 18 and older check their...

Science & Innovation

From Math to Medicine: What Are Mathematical Models and How Do They Predict Pharmacology?

It sounds strange, but predicting how medications impact diseases and the body is a lot like forecasting the weather.To understand why, imagine opening a weather app on your smartphone to check the forecast for the upcoming weekend. You see that it’ll be sunny, 72 degrees, with a slight breeze—perfect weather. But how did scientists predict those precise physical conditions so far in the future?The answer: mathematical models.Scientists across disciplines use mathematical models to make...

Purpose & Ideals

Three Principles of Responsibility for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Healthcare

Most people already use artificial intelligence (AI) in their daily lives, sometimes without even thinking about it as being AI-driven. Global positioning systems (GPS) are AI-based navigation applications, for instance, that help us find the quickest route between Points A and B and suggest alternate routes when an accident has jammed up traffic. Artificial intelligence speeds up online shopping by remembering our shopping preferences and recommending similar and complementary products. Artifi...

Real People

5 Inspiring STEM Women Who are Making Medicine Happen

Numbers don’t lie, so the saying goes. And in the United States, statistics about women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) seem to speak less than impressive volumes of truth. Here are the facts: In 2021, only 24% of people working in the United States held jobs in a STEM field1. And while women made up 50.5% of the total U.S. population2, they accounted for only 35% of people employed in STEM jobs.1 Moreover, out of the 24% of all people who worked in STEM1, 65% of...

Data Privacy Day and Our Commitment to You

Credit: Getty ImagesEvery year on January 28, the United States, Canada, Nigeria, Israel, and 47 European countries come together to raise awareness and promote privacy and data protection best practices.Health data is at the core of scientific and medical innovation, and your personal health data can play a critical role in helping you and your care team manage your health and make informed health decisions. We understand that personal information about your health can be sensitive. “We believe...

Albert Bourla Reflects on the One Year Anniversary of the COVID-19 Pandemic

One year. That’s how long it has been since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Sometimes it feels like the year went by in the blink of an eye. More often, however, it feels more like five years have gone by since many of us last gathered with loved ones, went to a movie theater or grabbed coffee with colleagues at the office. But regardless of how long it has felt to each of us, I think we can all agree it has been a year defined by loss, learning and an...

Purpose & Ideals

Pfizer’s Institute of Translational Equitable Medicine Addresses Equity in Health Research

When it comes to healthcare, the terms “equitable” and "access" often go hand-in-hand. In order to prevent, treat, and identify diseases that disproportionately impact underserved and minority populations, Pfizer believes that research must be directed to the root causes of healthcare disparities. The recently-launched Institute of Translational Equitable Medicine (ITEM) is intended to do just that: work toward a more equitable future of health care. For Aida Habtezion, M.D., who is Pfizer’s...

Data Doctors: How Biostatisticians Play a Critical Role in Discovering and Developing Medicine

When you think of a statistician, you may picture a math whiz hastily scrawling formulas on a white board in the halls of academia or the trading floors of finance. But statisticians—specifically, biostatisticians—play a critical role in discovering and developing new medicines. “If we want to get the most from the data, analysis, and experiment, more often than not, it requires early partnership between scientists and biostatisticians in the design and analysis plan,” says Vice President, Head...

An Immune System “GPS” Uncovers Pathways to Treat Diseases

When it comes to understanding the immune system, we’re in the age of a data “traffic jam.” Thanks to advances in gene sequencing technology and decades of research, we’ve amassed a huge trove of information, but utilizing it to drive new insights can be challenging. A collaboration with Israel-based startup CytoReason is allowing Pfizer scientists to harness computational technology that functions as a “GPS” for the immune system. The tools help to unpack these complex data sets so they can...

Vaccines During Pregnancy

Women who get the vaccines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during pregnancy can help protect themselves from some diseases—and they can give their babies some early protection as well. This happens because pregnant women who are vaccinated can pass along some of the antibodies (proteins that fight disease) they get from the vaccines to their babies. These antibodies can give the baby some protection against certain diseases during the first months of life—when...