No one should go without essential medicine. We have long recognized our responsibility to help provide affordable access to medicine to people who cannot afford our products, and further, to help build the world's capacity to deliver better health care to more people.
Of the 7 billion people on earth, one-third do not have regular access to essential medicine.
Our approach to expanding access is aligned with the UN Millennium Development Goals and includes developing commercially viable business models to provide sustainable, long-term access for underserved populations; maintaining a strong portfolio of philanthropic investments that build global health care capacity and serve patients who have yet to be reached through our commercial businesses; and engaging in select partnerships with NGOs, private institutions, governments, aid agencies, health care professionals and patients where we can bring special resources and expertise.
We believe that these investments build Pfizer's long-term value to our investors by strengthening our reputation, opening new opportunities and giving us a foundation for expanding our operations in emerging markets. Pfizer has decades of experience and, now, growing businesses in these countries. Our success is rooted, in some part, in our willingness to invest not only in product and commercial development, but also in our strategic use of social investments to improve living standards and health care systems.
We continue to forge partnerships with stakeholders and peers, so that we are better able to serve the needs of people everywhere with life-enhancing, commercially viable health care solutions.
