Pfizer launches new website for migraine, respiratory offerings

[August 27, 2024]  By Michael Erman

(Reuters) - Pfizer Inc is launching a new website to promote and improve access to its health care offerings for migraine and respiratory illnesses.

The drugmaker said on Tuesday that it launched the site called PfizerForAll to help patients get access to treatments like its COVID-19 drug Paxlovid and its migraine pill Nurtec by offering services like telehealth appointments and diagnostic tests.

It can also help them find vaccines for respiratory illnesses like COVID, flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and pneumonia.

"These are conditions that consumers engage in deeply," Pfizer Chief U.S. Commercial Officer Aamir Malik said in an interview. "They're engaged in trying to understand their own diagnosis, understand what solutions are available to them and navigate care for themselves."

Investors have fled from Pfizer as the market for its COVID-19 vaccine and treatment has shrunk by billions of dollars a year.

The company's 2023 launch of its RSV shot Abrysvo has also been a disappointment, but the company has expressed optimism about the vaccine in the U.S. this year.

Some of these features have existed on the websites for the specific medicine brands or elsewhere, but PfizerForAll brings them onto a single platform and gives the company a place to potentially expand those offerings.

Pfizer logo is seen in this illustration taken, May 1, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

"There's a real-time aspect to having a digital platform where we can add features and add partners to enhance that consumer experience, but we're going to let the consumer and the patient guide us on what it is that they need and what they value, and then we'll grow the platform accordingly from there," Malik said.

Pfizer's new website follows a similar initiative launched by Eli Lilly to help patients get its drugs, including the weight-loss medicine Zepbound, called LillyDirect.

Lilly's service enables patients to order their medicines directly from the drugmaker. PfizerForAll does not, making use instead of the existing insurance and pharmacy network for patients to receive their drugs.

Pfizer said among the new offerings on the site are telehealth consultations from UpScriptHealth and delivery options from Instacart.

(Reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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