2010 Highlights
-
Prevenar 13 for pediatric use will reach infants and young children in the world's poorest countries through Pfizer's 10-year provisional supply agreement under the terms of the Advance Market Commitment pilot project against pneumococcal disease. This agreement reflects Pfizer's commitment to implementing tiered pricing where appropriate, which will help bring vaccines to patients in nearly 50 countries.
-
The International Trachoma Initiative aims to eliminate, by 2020, the leading cause of preventable blindness in the developing world, through donations of Pfizer's antibiotic, Zithromax, and support for community-based health services, education and infrastructure construction. With the help of this initiative, Morocco and Vietnam are now trachoma-free.
-
Comunidad Más Saludable (Healthier Community), launched by Pfizer Venezuela, uses community-based sales representatives in low-income neighborhoods to encourage local health care professionals' education and diagnostic capabilities, and improve access to Pfizer products through direct discounts to patients.
1One-third of the world's population does not have regular access to essential medicine.1 That's 2 billion people who could needlessly suffer—even die—from preventable and curable diseases, communicable and noncommunicable alike.
As the world's largest research-based biopharmaceutical company, we fully understand that we have, and must deploy, our special capabilities to expand access to better health care in a fashion that is sustainable for patients today and tomorrow, and in ways that help underserved people in both the developed and developing worlds. Our access strategy is aligned with our long-time commitment to the UN Millennium Development Goals and our guiding belief that commercial viability is the cornerstone of sustainability.
To that end, we continue to invest in effective and sustainable health care delivery resources, and work with national governments, health care professionals, NGOs, multilateral organizations, academic institutions and others to help people who need better health care resources obtain them.
Pfizer takes a multi-pronged approach to increasing access to medicines and health care for low-income patients in emerging markets. This includes developing commercially viable business models to provide sustainable, long-term access for underserved populations; maintaining a strong portfolio of global health investments that build global health care capacity and serve patients who cannot be reached on a commercial basis; and engaging in key partnerships with NGOs, private institutions, governments, aid agencies, health care professionals and patients.
In parallel, we continue to invest in our philanthropic global health portfolio. With 4 billion people living on less than $3 a day, the cost of medicines at any price will be too high for too many people. We are working with our stakeholders to find ways to provide access to needed medicines for those who cannot be reached through business approaches.
We also believe that medicines are only one component of providing access to better health care, and remain committed to help build greater capacity for better health care delivery around the world. To that end, we continue to invest in effective and sustainable health care delivery resources, and work with national governments, international agencies, NGOs, multilateral organizations, academic institutions and others to help people who need better health care resources obtain them.
Ultimately, the costs of Pfizer's philanthropic investments are largely borne by our investors. We believe that these investments build Pfizer's value by opening long-term opportunities for Pfizer and giving us a foundation for expanding our operations in emerging markets. Pfizer has decades of experience in these countries and, now, fast-growing businesses in markets such as China, Brazil and the Philippines. This success is rooted partly in our willingness to invest not only in product and commercial development, but also in our strategic use of philanthropy to improve society and improve health care systems.
1. WHO Medicines Strategy: Countries at the Core 2004-2007 http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2004/WHO_EDM_2004.5.pdf
