Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) has launched a campaign dubbed “Get Old” to enable it to gather ideas from the public about products or services targeting a healthy aging market. In what has been termed as a first for a drug company, Pfizer is collaborating with crowdfunder Indiegogo for the Get Old campaign.
Reward for winning idea
As Pfizer looks for “old ideas”, it is willing to reward those with the highest commercialization potential. The ideas that Pfizer is looking for are those that can be translated into marketable products or services to make a difference in the body, mind or spirit of people as they age.
After submission for ideas under Pfizer’s Get Old closes on June 28, what will follow next will be for selection of the four best ideas. Later, those four ideas will be published on Pfizer’s website and voting will be done to select the best two ideas from the pool of four. Out of the two ideas voted for, Pfizer will evaluate them and then pick the winning one. The winning idea will receive a $50,000 reward and an opportunity to meet Pfizer experts to help with translating the idea into a marketable product or service.
According to Pfizer’s VP of Corporate Affairs, Sally Susman, their partnership with Indiegogo is aimed at discovering and developing an idea with the potential to transform a healthy aging market. Additionally, the campaign is designed to raise more awareness regarding the importance of living healthfully regardless of age. The company hopes that the ideas that do not win its backing will get support elsewhere given the exposure they will receive courtesy of the campaign.
$350 million biologics plant in China
Pfizer is wrapping up its campaign at a time when it has also disclosed an investment of $350 million to set up a biotechnology plant in eastern China. The plant, which is expected to be ready for operations in 2018, will be dedicated to developing biologics and their close copycats called biosimilars. With the move, Pfizer hopes to take advantage of China’s rapidly growing drug spending thanks to a rapidly expanding middle class population.