Pfizer Super Bowl Commercial
Going to go straight to the point on this post without beating around the bush.
Yesterday, during the Super Bowl Pfizer ran a commercial focused on a little boy knocking out cancer. It seemed like a great message! The little boy putting on boxing gloves, leaving the hospital, and making his way through the cheering crowds right into the arms of his teary eyed mom.
I cried, probably just like thousands if not millions of parents around the country. I also cried because my child is one of the lucky ones, that did knock out cancer. A year of treatment, 25 chemo therapies, and thankfully 5 years of remission. Now, that year feels like a lucid dream.
But today I got an email from Beat Childhood Cancer Foundation and all the warm feelings about commercial have disappeared. Through this email I've learned that out of 115 candidates in the Pfizer pipeline only 4 of them are focused on pediatrics, and not a single one is targeting pediatric cancers.
Not a single one.
According to Cancer.gov , cancer in children and adolescents is rare, but is also the "....the leading cause of death by disease after infancy among children in the United States". According to the same source, in 2024, a total of 14910 children aged 0 to 19 would be diagnosed with cancer and 1040 of those would die of the disease. In comparison, according to the same source, Cancer.gov, in 2024 about 2 million adults would be diagnosed and 600k adults will pass.
By spending just 5 minutes to peek behind the curtain I learned that spending money to save 1000 children a year is not enough for the bottom line. All cancer is sad, all of it. There is not a person that has not been impacted by cancer. But please, do not focus your investments on addressable market to drive revenues, while using an under researched area of patients as a prop for emotions.
In 2024 Pfizer invested $10.8 billion into R&D, and [returned capital directly to shareholders](https://insights.pfizer.com/fourth-quarter-fy-earnings-2024/) to the tune of $9.5 billion. All of this with YOY growth of 7% in revenues.
In this commercial, kids are just a prop.