Anti-Infective agents are a class of medicines that help fight the cause off infection. Infections are mainly caused by microscopic organisms such as bacteria, parasites, fungi and viruses. The different types of infection that these pathogens can cause are extremely diverse. Minor infections can include ‘colds’, athlete’s foot, warts and cold sores however more serious infections include AIDS, gangrene and pneumonia which can even lead to death.
Pfizer has a strong tradition in providing anti-infective medicines and continue to develop and produce such. It has also set up the Diflucan Partnership Programme making it available free of charge to many patients in developing countries who have HIV/ AIDS and develop opportunistic fungal infections. For more information about this program, please visit http://www.diflucanpartnership.org.
Bacteria can cause skin and respiratory infections. In 1998, the International Trachoma Initiative (ITI) was founded. Trachoma is the leading cause of preventable blindness in many developing countries and Pfizer donate medicines to treat the infection. For more information about this initiative, please visit http://www.trachoma.org.
In more recent years, Pfizer has provided newer anti-infectives which are used in serious skin infections and pneumonia including those caused by Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Pfizer continues its commitment to developing medicines to fight existing and emerging infections and in the near future will have new medicines for bacterial and fungal infections and also in the treatment of HIV.