The developing world lacks the infrastructure and funds to tackle deprivation and disease. Many countries lack the most basic health services and even the cheapest treatments cannot be afforded. As a result, diseases which have been largely eliminated from the developed world, including malaria, tuberculosis and cholera, continue to flourish in poorer countries. Other diseases are also far more common in developing world countries than elsewhere, such as leprosy, malaria and trachoma. The spread of HIV/AIDS has added to the overwhelming problems which face some of the poorest countries in the world.
Pfizer’s vision for the world is one of universal access to basic health care. We work in partnership with governments, NGOs, multilateral organisations, private industry, academic institutions and others to help people obtain access to the medicines they need.
Pfizer recognises that as an industry we have an important role to play in improving access to medicines in the developing world - but we cannot provide the sole solution. Medicines alone cannot overcome the massive challenges posed by HIV/AIDS, trachoma, malaria and other epidemics. The world must also help developing nations to train more healthcare workers, build more hospitals and clinics, improve distribution systems, and in every other way improve healthcare infrastructure.
Pfizer believes it can contribute best by playing a partnership role and we are committed to partnering and working ever more closely with other industries, governments, international agencies and NGOs to work to overcome these challenges.
Key Messages
Pfizer believes that its responsibilities to improve access to medicines in the developing world are threefold:
1. One of the most important things Pfizer can do is to work to develop medicines to benefit patient populations in developing world countries. We currently have teams comprising over 100 discovery scientists working at two of our major research facilities – one in California, and one here in the UK – working on new medicines to treat HIV/AIDS. In addition to this work, Pfizer is also expanding its research into two other infectious diseases prevalent in the developing world – malaria and diarrheal diseases.
2. Pfizer has a responsibility to support developing countries directly by helping them develop effective healthcare systems. There is a strong need to combine the distribution of medicine with a stronger public health infrastructure. We are committed to working in partnership with national governments, NGOs and other partners to create programmes that will help those people most in need. Our programmes are public-private partnerships that combine the donation of appropriate medicines with public health education initiatives, including training for health care workers in diagnosis and treatment, and information for patients on how to live healthier lives and prevent the spread of preventable diseases.
Three such programmes are:
• Infectious Diseases Institute at Makerere University in Uganda. This partnership brings together expertise and skills from a number of parties to provide patient care, training, prevention, access to medicines, monitoring and counselling in the area of HIV/AIDS. 13,000 HIV-infected patients receive regular care at the clinic and the Institute trains 650 health professionals each year from 21 African countries, who then transfer their knowledge to colleagues in their home communities.
• The International Trachoma Initiative is dedicated to eliminating blinding trachoma, the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness. It works with government agencies and other partners at a national level to treat infection and reverse its damage, increase the availability of health care in endemic areas and address underlying causes of the disease. The programme spans 12 countries, and to date has provided support for nearly 180,000 sight-saving surgical operations and distributed 38 million antibiotic treatments.
• The Diflucan Partnership Programme - established by Pfizer in 2000, it now covers 44 countries with a high prevalence of AIDS. It is a public-private partnership which combines drug donation of our anti-infective DiflucanTM through government hospitals and NGOs with education and training for health care professionals in diagnosing and managing the treatment of infections. Pfizer has treated more than 200,000 patients and trained more than 20,000 health care workers in the diagnosis and treatment of fungal opportunistic infections.
3. Pfizer also has a responsibility to help patients in poorer countries access medicines by making them affordable. There is no “one size fits all” solution to this. We believe that differential pricing or the transfer of intellectual property rights alone, will not solve the complex issues of access to healthcare in developing countries. Even discounted medicines will often remain unaffordable for patients in poor countries. In addition, low cost medicines intended for developing countries are frequently traded in other markets for profit, meaning that they never reach the intended recipients. That is why Pfizer’s preferred method is to donate medicines in the context of partnership programmes, so that trained healthcare professionals on the ground can ensure medicines reach those people who need them most.