Our scientists are constantly striving to answer new questions, tackle emerging diseases, and develop high-impact medicines and vaccines that could improve patient outcomes, leveraging our world-class capabilities to deliver impressive results.
Pfizer’s powerful R&D engine is the driving force behind our ability to deliver breakthroughs that change patients’ lives. We are proud to be a leader in the industry, with a top quartile end-to-end success rate in bringing drugs and vaccines from discovery to approval, relative to peers.1
From 2023-2024, Pfizer received more than 20 major regulatory approvals across our portfolio, and we expect to continue to meaningfully advance our pipeline in 2025 with the possibility of:
- At least four regulatory decisions,
- Up to nine potential Phase 3 readouts, and
- A significant series of pivotal program starts
These investigational medicines and vaccines include a potential treatment for a life-threatening metabolic condition, possible breakthroughs across multiple cancer types, and vaccines to help protect against public health threats, including targeting a life-threatening bacterial infection for which there is currently no approved vaccine.
As of April 29, 2025, our clinical pipeline includes 108 ongoing development programs, and we have reorganized our R&D structure to prioritize the most impactful areas of opportunity, further accelerate decision-making and drive topline growth. Our R&D units are focused on Pfizer’s four priority areas:
- Oncology
- Vaccines
- Internal Medicine
- Inflammation & Immunology
Pfizer also innovates across multiple drug modalities to select the optimal approach for treating or preventing a variety of diseases. These modalities – including biologics, small molecules, vaccines, and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) – vary in their size, complexity and the way in which they are administered.
So, what typically happens within our R&D organization to bring new medicines to market? Let’s break it down with a simplified example illustrating key aspects of the R&D process for small molecule drugs. Small molecule drugs, which are typically taken orally, can treat many conditions because their small size allows them to easily enter cells.
Forward-looking statements included herein, including those related to our anticipated operating and financial performance, our research and development strategy and productivity, our product and pipeline advancements and candidates, and our capital allocation strategy and dividend, are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. We encourage you to read our reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the sections captioned “Risk Factors” and “Forward Looking Information and Factors that May Affect Future Results,” for a description of such substantial risks and uncertainties. These reports are available at pfizer.comand the SEC’s website. Also reference Pfizer’s latest pipeline snapshot for additional information. 1The FIH to approval NME success rate metric is a composite metric. It is a cumulative success rate derived using individual phase success rates from FIH (start of Phase 1) to approval (first regulatory approval) at an NME level. Combinations of approved NMEs, biosimilars and generics are excluded from all success rate calculations. Cumulative NME success rate is calculated using three-year rolling cohorts for Phase 1 and five-year rolling cohorts for Phase 2, Phase 3 and registration.