Pfizer recently issued a five-point plan calling on the biopharmaceutical industry to join the company in committing to unprecedented collaboration to combat COVID-19.
“In this troubling time, Pfizer is committed to doing all we can to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many companies, including Pfizer, are working to develop antiviral therapies to help infected patients fight this emerging virus as well as new vaccines to prevent infection and halt the further spread of this disease,” Pfizer Chairman and CEO Dr Albert Bourla said.
“Pfizer is working to advance our own potential antiviral therapies and is engaged with BioNTech on a potential mRNA coronavirus vaccine. We are committed to work as one team across the industry to harness our scientific expertise, technical skills and manufacturing capabilities to combat this evolving crisis.”
Pfizer’s five promises to combat the virus include:
Sharing tools and insights: Pfizer is committed to making the vital tools it develops available on an open source platform to the broader scientific community and to sharing the data and learnings gained with other companies in real time to rapidly advance therapies and vaccines to patients.
Marshalling people: Pfizer has created a SWAT team of its leading virologists, biologists, chemists, clinicians, epidemiologists, vaccine experts, pharmaceutical scientists and other key experts to focus on accelerating the discovery and development process that will deliver therapies and vaccines to patients as soon as possible.
Applying drug development expertise: Pfizer is committed to sharing its clinical development and regulatory expertise to support the most promising candidates brought forward by other companies who have screening compounds or existing therapies for activity against the virus causing COVID-19.
Offering manufacturing capabilities: Pfizer is committed to using any excess manufacturing capacity and to potentially shift production to support others in rapidly getting life-saving breakthroughs into the hands of patients as quickly as possible.
Improving future rapid response: Finally, to address future global health threats, Pfizer is reaching out to federal agencies to build a cross-industry rapid response team of scientists, clinicians and technicians able to move into action immediately when future epidemics surface.
