Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) is stepping up its battle against breast cancer. Perhaps in an effort to help Ibrance sales, a top breast cancer treatment, the biopharma giant says that patients suffering from this incurable cancer are more often than not overlooked in terms of care and treatment.
Metastatic breast cancer, or mBC, kills more than half a million women around the world each year. It is the stage at which the tumor has stretched beyond the breast to other parts of the body. The average survival rate of patients with mBC cancer is three years but surprisingly, women with the metastatic disease are living longer than ever, some up to 10 years after diagnosis.
Pfizer is sponsoring an innovation challenge
VP of strategy and innovation at Pfizer Oncology, Maria Koehler says, “It is becoming a chronic disease with very specific needs. The problem is because patients live for so many years and with a disease thought to be non-curable, it is a completely different psychological problem, payer problem, family problem and really everyone’s problem about how to maintain and keep the patient reasonably happy in living with this cancer.”
Now Pfizer is calling on tech-savvy business leaders to come up with solutions that will help a majority of those suffering from it. The pharma tech has opened an “Advancing Care for Patients Living with mBC Challenge,” that looks to trigger people to help in creating tech-enabled solutions. The challenge is not only open to health-care professionals but also to entrepreneurs, designers, developers and any other person or firm that has the expertise to deliver.
Pfizer Oncology has been carrying out far-reaching analyses of mBC
Over the past two years, Pfizer Oncology has been looking for beyond-the-pill, patient-centric solutions. It has implored internal innovation and external partnerships. However, treatment and management of mBC have been marred with shortcomings according to breast cancer researcher Dr. Fatima Cardoso. This has resulted in stagnation for the breast cancer medical community.
Cardoso says that there is a need for implementing comprehensive overhaul research strategies in the industry. Meanwhile, Pfizer’s stock was trading at $33.47 a decline of $0.01 or 0.03%.
