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Read our latest stories on the people and scientific innovations making a difference in patients’ lives.
Programs & Initiatives
A Billion Doses Delivered: 3 Lessons from the Fight Against Trachoma
Credit: Brent Stirton/Getty Images for ITI Imagine an infection that causes your eyelids to turn inward, so that your lashes—intended to protect your eyes—scrape against the sensitive outer surface of your eye every time you blink. The pain is excruciating and constant. Your eyes water. Your lashes scratch and scar your cornea, the clear tissue covering your eye. Your vision becomes increasingly hazy. That’s reality for nearly two million people. According to the World Health Organization (WHO...
Science & Innovation
What Does mRNA Mean for the Flu Vaccine?
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, messenger RNA, or mRNA, has been in the spotlight for the critical role it’s playing in the first-ever approved mRNA vaccine.1 But in fact, Pfizer and BioNTech had entered into a worldwide collaboration agreement in 2018 to work on an mRNA vaccine for a different virus. “Pfizer's first partnership with BioNTech was to look at ways to develop a more effective flu vaccine,” says John McLaughlin, who is Vice President, COVID-19/Flu Vaccines & Antivirals Lead with...
Real People
Equitable Access to Multiple Myeloma Treatments Can Help Close the Survival Gap
Jennifer Flowers thought her pain and fatigue were a side effect of working out. Perhaps she’d pushed herself too hard or strained a muscle. But the pain persisted, so she scheduled an appointment with her doctor. Her diagnosis—multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer—was unexpected. “I was stunned,” Flowers says. “I’m a health-conscious professional and was exercising multiple times a week.” Her first thought, Flowers says, was “How long do I have to live?” Medical Innovations Extend...
Purpose & Ideals
Equity in Advanced Prostate Cancer Care Begins with Changing the Conversation
Prostate health is not a popular topic of conversation. Even in healthcare settings, patients and providers might be hesitant to discuss prostate health or cancer screening. But talking openly is not only the key to destigmatizing an important topic, it’s one of the first steps in addressing global health inequities that impact those diagnosed with prostate cancer.“In the past 10 years, we have seen advances in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer (aPC), but some people are still being left...
Programs & Initiatives
Operation Eradication: The Global Health Community Comes Together to Defeat Meningitis by 2030
Bacterial meningitis strikes fast. Within hours, a fever, headache, nausea, and stiff neck can lead to brain damage, hearing loss, and other permanent disabilities, and potentially even death.1,2 Meningitis stems from infection in the fluid around the brain and spinal cord, causing inflammation to the membranes surrounding them, called meninges.1,3 Bacterial meningitis is the most common form of the illness. As its name suggests, bacteria like Haemophilus influenzae (type B), Streptococcus...
Purpose & Ideals
Patients’ Voices Shape the Drug Development Process Through a Preference Survey
Cory Lewis has sickle cell disease. Some days, the pain from the blood disorder hits him hard. Even on days without pain, he worries about his future and the health conditions that might arise. “It’s definitely 365 for me,” he says. As a program coordinator with Sick Cells, a sickle cell disease advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., Lewis regularly educates people about what it’s like to live with this disease—a rare, inherited condition, predominately (but not exclusively) impacting Black...
Living & Wellbeing
Five Ways Climate Change Impacts Our Health—and What We Can Do About It
It took a split second, recalls Louise Proud. Something in the air triggered an asthma attack in her 18-month-old daughter. The baby’s lips turned blue as Proud rushed her to the hospital in a panic. Thankfully, the healthcare team helped the child breathe normally, and she was back to herself quickly. But Proud’s sense of safety and stability didn’t snap back so readily. For her, it was a moment of realization about how the environment and health are intimately linked. Proud, who is Vice...
Science & Innovation
The Science Behind Migraine and Headaches
If you've never had a migraine attack, it’s hard to imagine how a headache can knock someone out of commission. Perhaps you've even referred to a headache as “having a migraine.” But if you're among the one billion people worldwide who lives with migraine, you fully understand how debilitating an attack can be.1 The pain, nausea, and sensitivity to light and sound can make it impossible to work or care for your family. No wonder migraine is the second leading cause of disability.2 Understandin...
Living & Wellbeing
Heartburn, Acid Reflux, or GERD: What’s the Difference?
For many Americans, Super Bowl Sunday is as much an excuse to dig into snacks as it is to tune in for the game. Each year, we eat more than a billion chicken wings and 10 million pizzas.1,2 Then we wash it all down with more than 300 million gallons of beer. The resulting heartburn is often enough to raise antacid sales at 7-Eleven by 20% the day after the big game.1For about 60 million Americans, heartburn isn’t an aggravation isolated to one Sunday in February, but a condition they experience...
Living & Wellbeing
8 Common STDs: What You Need to Know
For many, isolation has been an inescapable part of life during COVID-19. However, new sexually transmitted disease (STD) data indicate that people are still managing to get together and contract more than just the coronavirus.In 2021, more than 2,000 babies were born with syphilis that they contracted from their mothers, according to preliminary Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data on STDs. That figure represents a 108% year-over-year increase.1While the data are still being...
Science & Innovation
The Next Frontier of Vaccine Innovation
Edward Jenner changed the world when he used cowpox virus to inoculate a young boy against smallpox.1 Less than 200 years later, smallpox was eradicated from the Earth.2 Dozens of vaccines have since been created, leading to dramatic improvements in public health as well as a marked decline in deaths due to diseases such as measles, pertussis (whooping cough), and tetanus. Imagine what Jenner would say if he knew that at least two vaccines now help prevent cancers!3 Or that the world’s...
Purpose & Ideals
The Meaning of Moonshot: Lessons in Leadership to Last a Lifetime
ON TUESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2019, Chinese authorities alerted the World Health Organization to a mysterious virus causing pneumonia-like illness in a small cluster of patients in the city of Wuhan. Shortly after, the novel virus was identified as SARS-CoV-2. Less than a year later, on Tuesday, December 8, 2020, nearly ninety-one-year-old Margaret Keenan received a Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine shot at England’s Coventry University Hospital and became the first person in the world to be...
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