Pfizer celebrates Global Health Fellows’ tenth anniversary

Pfizer has hailed the ongoing success of its Global Health Fellows (GHF) programme, which marks its tenth anniversary this year.

The scheme is Pfizer's signature corporate volunteer initiative, pairing colleagues from technical and functional areas in three to six- month fellowships with international development organisations with the aim of improving global access to medicines.

Leveraging the full range of the company's resources, spanning personnel, medicines, expertise and funding, the project has seen 317 colleagues completing an estimated 325,000 hours of skills-based volunteering.

The 2013 class will share 156 years of Pfizer experience with eleven GHF partner organisations, with the aim of optimising supply chains and scaling up health prevention approaches in China, India and East Africa.

Caroline Roan, president of the Pfizer Foundation and vice-president of corporate social responsibility, said: "The tenth anniversary of this vibrant programme vividly demonstrates our commitment to promoting access, quality and efficiency of health services for the world's neediest people."

Earlier this month, the company received an expanded European pneumococcal conjugate vaccine Prevenar 13, allowing the drug to be used among older children and adolescents for the first time.