Pfizer Launches 'An Accord for a Healthier World' to Improve Health Equity for 1.2 Billion People Living in 45 Lower-Income Countries - Seite 2

Pfizer will also collaborate with Accord participants to identify quick and efficient regulatory pathways and procurement processes to reduce the longer amount of time it can take to make new medicines and vaccines available in these countries.

Under the Accord, Pfizer has committed to provide 23 medicines and vaccines that treat infectious diseases, certain cancers, and rare and inflammatory diseases. Making these medicines and vaccines more readily available has the potential to treat non-communicable and infectious diseases that claim the lives of nearly one million people each year in these countries and chronic diseases that significantly impact quality of life for at least half a million more^[1]. As Pfizer launches new medicines and vaccines, those products will also be included in the Accord portfolio on a not-for-profit basis.

The Accord also aims to establish faster access to Pfizer's future pipeline medicines and vaccines on a not-for-profit-basis to the 45 countries, particularly those that treat diseases that disproportionately impact global health. To further this commitment, Pfizer, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is advancing work on the development of vaccine candidates for the prevention of Group B Streptococcus (GBS), which is a leading cause of stillbirth and newborn mortality in low-income countries. They are also discussing opportunities to support Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccine development, another maternal vaccine.

"Everyone, no matter where they live, should have the same access to innovative, life-saving drugs and vaccines," said Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "The Accord for a Healthier World could help millions more people in low-income countries get the tools they need to live a healthy life. Pfizer is setting an example for other companies to follow."

"Rapid and affordable access to the most advanced medicines and vaccines is the cornerstone of global health equity. Pfizer's commitment under the Accord program sets a new standard in this regard. Combined with additional investments in strengthening Africa's public health systems and pharmaceutical regulators, the Accord is an important step toward sustainable health security for countries at every income level," said His Excellency Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda.