Pfizer has launched an online site to provide up-to-date, user-friendly information on the status of its US post-marketing commitments. Post-marketing commitments are studies conducted after a medicine receives regulatory approval, often as a requirement for approval or continued marketing of some medicines. The studies are designed to provide additional information about the medicine's safety, efficacy or optimal use. This initiative is the first of its kind for a pharmaceutical company.

The Web site provides study descriptions and status of US FDA post-marketing commitments, current due dates, total listed Pfizer PMCs, and general information about the PMC process. It is now available at www.pfizer.com/pmc.

"From a medical compound's discovery, through its development, and for as long as it is prescribed, each of our medicines undergoes thorough safety and efficacy monitoring and evaluation in collaboration with health authorities around the world," said Pfizer's Chief Medical Officer Joseph Feczko. "This kind of transparency helps encourage patients to ask their physicians about treatment options. When these conversations happen, they often help patients better understand the risks and benefits of different treatment options."

The FDA first posted a database of all the industry's post-marketing commitments on its public Web site in 2003. The new Pfizer site expands the information available, presented with user-friendly search functions, a glossary of terms, and frequently asked questions about PMCs. Users can view Pfizer's regulatory commitments for prescription medications by product name, approval date and study status, among other criteria. Pfizer will update the site weekly.