Accord for a Healthier World: Pfizer expands product portfolio to benefit 1.2bn people

Pfizer Inc has significantly expanded its commitment to the Accord for a Healthier World initiative by offering the full portfolio of medicines and vaccines for which it has global rights on a not-for-profit basis.

This is to enable greater health for 1.2 billion people living in 45 lower-income countries.

Launched in May 2022, the Accord, a transformative initiative focused on greatly reducing health inequities that exist between many lower-income countries and the rest of the world.

It initially included a commitment from Pfizer for access to all its patented medicines and vaccines available in the U.S. or European Union on a not-for-profit basis to 45 lower-income countries.

However, to better align with disease burden and unmet patient needs in these countries, Pfizer will now expand its offering under the Accord to include off-patent products, bringing the total offering from 23 products to around 500 products.

The Accord portfolio offering now includes both patented and off-patent medicines and vaccines that treat or prevent many of the greatest infectious and non-communicable disease threats faced today in lower-income countries.

This includes chemotherapies and oral cancer treatments that have the potential to treat nearly one million new cancer cases in Accord countries each year.

It also includes a wide range of antibiotics, that can help to address the rising morbidity, mortality and costs associated with antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and help to prevent around 1.5 million deaths that occur each year in these countries as a result of bacterial infections in hospitals and community health clinics.

As Pfizer launches new medicines and vaccines, those products will also be included in the Accord portfolio on a not-for-profit basis.

Commenting on this, Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla, said “we launched the Accord to help reduce the glaring health equity gap that exists in our world. Our hope is to empower country governments and co-create solutions with them and other multi-sector partners to break down many of the system-level barriers to better health.

“In the months since the Accord’s launch, we have heard resoundingly from these leaders that access to a broader and more immediate scope of consistent, high-quality products is needed for meaningful and sustainable transformation. We believe this expansion of our product offering, combined with continued efforts to help address the barriers that limit or prevent access, will help us to achieve and even expedite our vision of a world where all people have access to the medicines and vaccines they need to live longer and healthier lives,” he stated.  

 Since its launch in May 2022, An Accord for a Healthier World continues to make progress towards its goals to help address global health equity through both medicine and vaccine supply and health system strengthening.