Featured Articles
Read our latest stories on the people and scientific innovations making a difference in patients’ lives.
Programs & Initiatives
Why Partnerships Are Vital in the Post-Emergency COVID-19 Era
In May 2023, while acknowledging that COVID-19 remains an ongoing and serious public health priority, the World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that COVID-19 was no longer a public health emergency.1,2“While the worst impacts of the pandemic may be behind us, ending public health emergencies does not mean COVID-19 is no longer a threat,” says James Allen, Head of Customer and Channel Partnerships in Pfizer's U.S. Primary Care Business.In...
Programs & Initiatives
The Future of Pharmacovigilance: Monitoring Medicine and Vaccine Safety Using AI and Other Tech
While many Pfizer colleagues worked to, develop and manufacture a vaccine for COVID-19, one Pfizer team was hard at work monitoring the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine trial. And they did so while also maintaining safety monitoring operations for more than 1,000 other products in the Pfizer portfolio.Pharmacovigilance is the name for the area of science which scientists and medical professionals monitor medicine and vaccine-related safety issues. “Medicine and vaccine safety is one of those...
Programs & Initiatives
The Importance of Returning Clinical Trial Data to Participants
Clinical trial participants are at the heart of medical research, and it’s with their help that Pfizer is able to bring life-changing treatments to patients. But, until recently, clinical trial sponsors like Pfizer have not been equipped to provide participants with their own personal clinical trial data when a trial ends. Pfizer’s team of clinical trial experts have worked for many years to change that by launching the Clinical Trial Participant Data Return Initiative. This first-of-its...
Programs & Initiatives
Avengers Assemble! Teaming Up with Marvel to Illustrate the Importance of COVID-19 Vaccination
Wait, Marvel? On Pfizer.com? For some, comic books may seem to be simply a form of entertainment featuring fantastical characters and mythical plots. However, through the years, they have proven to reflect and even influence our society. World War II, the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, AIDS, and 9/11 are only a few of the meaningful moments in our history that comic books have explored. So, it’s not so unusual to find Pfizer and BioNTech collaborating with Marvel Comics to create a...
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 ...
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...
Programs & Initiatives
Three Pfizer Partnerships to Get the COVID-19 Vaccine into African Countries and Vaccinations into Arms
In 2020, as Pfizer and BioNTech were still developing the COVID-19 vaccine, Julie Jenson was thinking about how to distribute that vaccine to every country around the world, regardless of that country’s means. Jenson, who is Director of International Product Access for Pfizer’s Global Health and Social Impact Team, knew even in those early days that the ultracold storage demands and shipping requirements of the vaccine could pose challenges in reaching people living in remote areas of low- and...
Programs & Initiatives
How One Woman’s Feeling of Helplessness Launched an Initiative to Hire Refugees
The images, unfortunately, have been too common for far too long: people young and old, refugees whose lives have been upended by forces beyond their control, fleeing their homes for safety. Watching it as it unfolds can make someone feel powerless. But what can one person do to make a difference? That was the question Mona Babury asked herself in August 2021 when the Taliban seized control in Afghanistan. From her home near New York City, as she watched footage of Afghan refugees, the trauma...
Programs & Initiatives
Shot of a Lifetime: How Two Pfizer Manufacturing Plants Upscaled to Produce the COVID-19 Vaccine in Record Time
After Pfizer and BioNtech signed a letter of intent in March 2020 to work together on a vaccine, two Pfizer facilities were swiftly selected for developing the processes and manufacturing the product at an industrial scale. Located in Puurs, Belgium, and Kalamazoo, Michigan, both plants had the space, the know-how, the people, and the equipment to get to work right away. Their locations in the U.S. and Europe positioned them well for global distribution. But even with all the right components...
Programs & Initiatives
Shot of a Lifetime: How Pfizer Developed its Own Raw Materials to Ensure a Steady Supply for the COVID-19 Vaccine
It was December 15, 2020 when Melissa French got the message: Pfizer needed large quantities of something called a cationic lipid that was critical to the COVID-19 vaccine. “This isn’t an everyday lipid that's readily available,” says French, who is a Project Manager with Pfizer Global Supply, and handles lipid production at a facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She was being asked to lead a team in producing large amounts of this important raw material. The call wasn’t a complete surprise. A...
Programs & Initiatives
Shot of a Lifetime: How Pfizer is Partnering with CMOs to Increase COVID-19 Vaccine Production and Reach More People
On a Sunday afternoon in May of 2020, Amy Genest’s phone rang. She recognized the number immediately and excused herself from her young daughters and her husband to take the work call. On the line, a colleague at Pfizer told her she needed help in securing contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) to assist with vaccine production, when—and if—Pfizer and BioNTech were authorized to manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine. “That task was nothing new for Genest, who at the time served as New Products...
Programs & Initiatives
Shot of a Lifetime: How Pfizer and BioNTech Developed and Manufactured a COVID-19 Vaccine in Record Time
On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic1. Just six days later, on March 17, Pfizer signed a letter of intent with BioNTech to co-develop a potential COVID-19 vaccine2. In those early days, it was unclear how this new virus was transmitted, or how long it would last. But as deaths around the world mounted and life as we knew it drastically changed, one thing became apparent: the virus was spreading rapidly, and the race for a vaccine was underway3. BioNTech...
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