As the world's leading pharmaceutical company Pfizer has a responsibility to improve the lives of patients. One way in which we do this is through our partnership with patient organisations.
Patient organisations are groups which work to improve the quality of life for people with a particular disease or medical condition by providing support services and information to patients, carers and their families. They put people in touch with other people facing similar experiences. Most people know someone who has turned to a patient organisation at some point in their life. Patient organisations also campaign for better standards of care and access to treatments for their patient constituency.
We think it is important to provide financial support to these organisations to help them provide these support services.
Patient organisations also want - and need - to know about new medicines that might benefit the patients they represent. If they ask us for this information we are happy to provide it within the regulatory constraints we face.
We work with patient organisations specialising in a range of health conditions. We aim to understand patient needs so we can work towards providing them with the best possible care. Our work with patient organisations is very much a partnership to ensure the independence and credibility of both organisations. We never make payments in order to influence prescribing behaviour.
As a member of The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, we are required to declare a list of patient organisations with which we have involvement and describe the nature of these partnerships. We have decided to go beyond this and have declared our full relationships with these organisations.
You can review our involvement with patient organisations during our last financial year, which runs from December 2006 to November 2007.
Total amount of funding given to patient organisations in 2007:
£967,409