In June, Pfizer announced that it had launched a new initiative for investing in biotechnology companies and committed up to $500 million to fund the effort. The Pfizer Breakthrough Growth Initiative will focus mostly on publicly traded biotechs working in the same core areas as the pharmaceutical giant — internal medicine, inflammation and immunology, cancer, rare diseases, vaccines and hospital treatments. Pfizer plans to take non-controlling stakes in these companies and help usher their medicines forward.