Pfizer announces goal to increase patient access across Africa, Mideast

AMMAN —  Regional leaders from Pfizer in Africa and the Middle East (AfME) announced their plans to deliver “breakthroughs” to more patients across the region and address critical public health needs and challenges during a virtual roundtable on Tuesday. 

Pfizer seeks “to increase patient access by more than 45 per cent in 2022,” Regional President of Pfizer AfME Patrick van der Loo said.

“In addition to the 100 breakthroughs available in the region to support patients across six therapeutic areas, including vaccines, oncology, inflammation and immunology, internal medicine, rare diseases, and anti-infectives and sterile injectables, we are planning on having over fifty product launches this year,” he added.

The company has managed to reach more than 4.1 million patients across AfME in 2021, according to van der Loo, who also noted that “affordability is a main area that Pfizer is focusing on”. 

“Last year, we have managed to support the lives of over 4,500 patients suffering from various diseases through our 30 access programmes in 11 countries across AfME,”he said, adding that Pfizer’s goal for 2022 is to support the lives of over 10,000 patients across the region.

Pifzer is also coming close to achieving its goal of providing 2 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to “low and middle income countries” in 2021 and 2022, according to van der Loo.

 “As of February 6, 2022, we have delivered more than 1.1 billion doses to 101 low and middle income countries,” he said.

Yasser El Dershaby, Vice President and Regional Medical Lead at Pfizer AfME, noted that Pfizer also “focuses on clinical excellence and research and development (R&D) efforts”.

“In 2021, we generated data in 44 publications, 20 non interventional studies (NIS) and 18 clinical trials across AfME,” he said, adding that plans are underway to “bolster research capabilities” and develop clinical trials in South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Gulf Countries.

He also noted that “Pfizer is leveraging innovation to place itself as a key catalyst in health and socioeconomic growth across the region”.

He said that “Pfizer is joining forces with the Biovac consortium to train South African healthcare professionals to produce Pfizer's pneumococcal conjugate vaccine locally”.

Biovac was founded in 2003 to support vaccine needs in South Africa, according to its website.

Over the upcoming years, Dershaby added, Pfizer is planning on increasing its investment of $24.5 millionwith an additional $33.8 million in order “to ramp up production”.