Pfizer awards companies, students and researches for innovation in healthcare

Pfizer has released a list of the winners of the 4th Pfizer Challenge Award, an initiative that values healthcare innovation with the support of the Innovster business consultancy. In the category “Always on Innovation,” three winners were elected, one in each group of participants: Startups, Inventors, and University Students.

Among the startup’s group, the winner was Bioprint, which proposed a 3D printing service of bioabsorbable bone implants for animals. Architect Marcelo Pirk received the Inventors’ award thanks to his application of digital games that stimulate the patient to do physical therapy remotely. Pfizer is an associate of Aberje.

As for the University Students’ group, the award was granted for the use of a nanosatellite to improve healthcare assistance for the indigenous community of Alto do Xingu (state of Mato Grosso), conceived by the student Mônica Tiyoko Morioka Hashimoto, from  Universidade Federal de São Paulo (Unifesp).

The award also had a new category, the “Always on Medical,” intended for researchers. Three types of papers were awarded: Epidemiological, Basic, and Clinical Research. A survey on moral harassment during the course of Medicine, by physician Ana Bresser Pereira Tokeshi, was the winner in Epidemiological Research. In Clinical Research, the highlight was a study by the physician Davi Jorge Fontoura Solla, who improved classification of risks to evaluate the severity of head trauma. As for Basic Research, the winner was physician Otávio de Melo Silva Junior, who analyzed the action of three types of drugs in the reduction of muscle fibrosis (scarring) due to injuries, in search of a most effective alternative.

The 4th Pfizer Challenge Award received 234 entries, nearly double the 132 competitors in 2017. “Pfizer, which invests heavily in R&D of innovative therapeutic options, is convinced of the importance of driving original research and high-tech solutions that help us understand and address the major medical challenges of contemporary society,” says the leader of Internal Medicine, Cynthia Mena.

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