Featured Articles
Read our latest stories on the people and scientific innovations making a difference in patients’ lives.
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...
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...
Purpose & Ideals
Pfizer's Commitment to Supplier Diversity
While it’s easy to recognize the economic and social benefits that suppliers and their communities receive by doing business with a global biopharmaceutical company such as Pfizer, the benefits are far more mutual than they may seem. Applying innovative perspectives gained from working with suppliers that bring diversity, Pfizer is better able to improve patient care through these connections to a more inclusive group of communities, thus improving health for all. One way Pfizer has worked to...
Purpose & Ideals
Through Public-Private Partnership, Scientists are Working to Better Understand Gene Therapy and How it Could Help Patients With Rare Diseases
A rare disease is, by its very nature, rare. The CDC defines a rare disease as a condition that affects fewer than 200,000 people in the United States, or no more than one out of every 2,000 people in Europe.1 And yet, rare diseases—which frequently have a genetic component—affect many: there may be as many 7,000 different types of rare diseases, impacting 25 to 30 million people in the United States, according to the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.2 Often, rare diseases...
Purpose & Ideals
Aiming for Equity: Assessing Pfizer's Ongoing Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
As one of the world’s most prominent biopharmaceutical companies, Pfizer recognizes a responsibility, not just to pioneering medical and scientific breakthroughs, but also to building teams of scientists, doctors, and professionals that represent and model a diverse workforce. In 2020, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla laid out a series of goals to demonstrate the company’s dedication to Equity, one of Pfizer’s four core values, by increasing diversity and inclusion. These goals focus on...
Purpose & Ideals
Collaborative Efforts in Biopharma: Accelerating Vaccine Development
In the year since the pandemic struck, the world has watched one of the greatest real-life dramas of all time unfold: the quest for a vaccine. In the past, drug development and clinical trials were of interest to a relatively small group of scientists, regulators and health care professionals. But with the threat of COVID-19 looming large, time has not been a luxury. The race for a vaccine has become a true spectacle, carrying with it the potential to save untold numbers of lives, globally.The...
Purpose & Ideals
Doing Better: Increasing Diversity in Clinical Trials
Diversity in clinical trials is key to equitable health outcomes. Increasingly, clinicians, researchers and patients are realizing that a lack of diversity in clinical trial participants may contribute to the stubborn persistence of health disparities, such as the fact that Black Americans are 30% more likely than whites to die prematurely of heart disease.1 After all, if a clinical trial for a new nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) drug doesn’t include an adequate number of Black...
Purpose & Ideals
Improving Metastatic Breast Cancer Care for Underserved Populations
Globally, breast cancer continues to be the most common invasive cancer in women, and one of the most common forms of cancer overall.1 While significant advances have been achieved, especially in metastatic disease, challenges beyond treatments remain, especially disparities created by structural, socioeconomic, socio-environmental, and biological factors. A recent 2021 publication reveals both the challenges facing underserved patient populations with metastatic breast cancer (mBC) in Europe...
Purpose & Ideals
Partnering for Sustainable Solutions: Combatting the Deadly Threat of Antimicrobial Resistance
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a leading global public health challenge that affects everyone, everywhere.[i] Although antibiotics are among the most important medicines the world has ever known, many are becoming ineffective as bacteria continue to evolve and become resistant.[ii] The growing risk of AMR means that in the near future doctors may no longer be able to rely on antibiotics to treat many basic infections.[iii] The threat of AMR disproportionally affects marginalized...
Purpose & Ideals
The Pfizer Foundation Invests in Community-Based Solutions to Combat the Threat of Infectious Diseases
Globally, infectious diseases are responsible for an estimated seven million deaths annually1 and are a leading cause of disability, particularly among young children and marginalized populations,2 often perpetuating the cycle of poverty.3 This is one of the reasons why The Pfizer Foundation* is dedicated to accelerating innovative solutions and improving health systems to help address the urgent threat of infectious diseases. Through the Global Health Innovation Grants (GHIG) program, now in...
Purpose & Ideals
Improving Care and Support for People Living with Breast Cancer
The facts around breast cancer raise cause for attention and most importantly, action. Worldwide, breast cancer continues to be one of the most common forms of cancer overall.1 And, with the global population aging, nearly 50% more women will develop and die from breast cancer in 2020 than in 2002.2 This statistic doesn’t include men, who also battle the disease, nor does it give the real picture with respect to certain populations. The quality of, and access to care among those diagnosed...
Purpose & Ideals
Pfizer Partners with Wellcome to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance in Sub-Saharan Africa
As part of Pfizer’s longstanding history of fighting infectious diseases and reducing health disparities for people around the world, we are excited to announce a new partnership with Wellcome, an independent foundation, to help tackle the growing public health crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR occurs when bacteria evolve to resist the effectiveness of antibiotics, making previously treatable diseases difficult or impossible to treat. Without action, it is expected to lead to the...
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