Pfizer has been betting big on Asia Pacific and other emerging markets. The company has taken a lot of steps to tap and further extend its presence in these markets. Dr Freda C Lewis-Hall, executive vice president and chief medical officer, Pfizer, spoke about some of these strategies that are in place for the APAC region in an exclusive one-on-one interview with BioSpectrum during her visit to BioAsia 2013 in Hyderabad.

She highlighted some of the initiatives that the company has taken in APAC and throughout the world to support effective clinical trials and advance drug discovery. She also spoke about the various collaborations Pfizer has with several companies and institutions.

Please tell us about the division that you lead, Pfizer Medical
Pfizer Medical is the part of Pfizer whose role is ensuring the safe, effective and appropriate use of our medicines, from the first time a patient is exposed to one of our medicines in clinical trials to the last time a patient takes our medicine anywhere in the world. In order to do that, we have a number of organizations in the division. Within Pfizer Medical is a group that does quality assurance (QA) and regulatory work to support and ensure high quality conduct and implementation of our clinical trials.

We have another organization that is responsible for communication with physicians. That group is focused on providing high-quality medical information and managing physician educational support. And last but not least is a group that works on key public health issues, External Medical Affairs. They help partnerships and collaborations that are focused on answering key public health needs.

How is Pfizer developing strategies to meet the medical needs of patients in emerging markets?
We think that the heart of meeting unmet medical needs in India, in Asia or anywhere else around the world, is innovation. At the end of the day there are many diseases that affect us and few that are adequately treated. We think that Innovation is the key to meeting unmet need anywhere around the world. So our focus is on supporting innovation through discovery and collaborations that we think spur that, in good clinical development we have some activities that support that in Asia and around the world. Example, we are working with clinical trial sites to help get accreditation to support improvement in clinical trial conduct.