Pfizer, Inc.

Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfizer (1824–1906) and his cousin Charles F. Erhart (1821–1891).

Pfizer develops and produces medicines and vaccines for immunology, oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, and neurology. The company has several blockbuster drugs or products that each generate more than billion in annual revenues. In 2020, 52% of the company's revenues came from the United States, 6% came from each of China and Japan, and 36% came from other countries.

Pfizer was a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index from 2004 to August 2020. The company ranks 64th on the Fortune 500 and 49th on the Forbes Global 2000.

History

1849–1950: Early history

Pfizer was founded in 1849 by Charles Pfizer and Charles F. Erhart, two cousins who had immigrated to the United States from Ludwigsburg, Germany, the year before. The business produced chemical compounds, and was headquartered on Bartlett StreetKenneth T. Jackson. ''The Encyclopedia of New York City''. The New York Historical Society; Yale University Press; September 1995. P. 895. in Williamsburgh, New York where they produced an antiparasitic called santonin. This was an immediate success, although it was production of citric acid that led to Pfizer's growth in the 1880s. Pfizer continued to buy property in the area (by now the Williamsburg district of the city of Brooklyn, New York and beginning in 1898, the City of Greater New York) to expand its lab and factory, retaining offices on Flushing Avenue until the 1960s; the Brooklyn plant ultimately closed in 2009. Following their success with citric acid, Pfizer (at the now-demolished 295 Washington Avenue) and Erhart (at 280 Washington Avenue) established their main residences in the nearby Clinton Hill district, known for its concentration of Gilded Age wealth. Pfizer spent summers in similarly exclusive Newport, Rhode Island where he died in 1906.

In 1881, Pfizer moved its administrative headquarters to 81 Maiden Lane in Manhattan, presaging the company's expansion to Chicago a year later. By 1906 sales exceeded $3million.

World War I caused a shortage of calcium citrate, which Pfizer imported from Italy for the manufacture of citric acid, and the company began a search for an alternative supply. Pfizer chemists learned of a fungus that ferments sugar to citric acid, and they were able to commercialize production of citric acid from this source in 1919. The company developed expertise in fermentation technology as a result. These skills were applied to the mass production of penicillin, an antibiotic, during World War II in response to the need to treat injured Allied soldiers.

On June 2, 1942, the company incorporated in Delaware.

1950–1980: Pivot to pharmaceutical research and global expansion

Due to price declines for penicillin, Pfizer searched for new antibiotics with greater profit potential. Pfizer discovered oxytetracycline in 1950, and this changed the company from a manufacturer of fine chemicals to a research-based pharmaceutical company. Pfizer developed a drug discovery program focused on in vitro synthesis to augment its research in fermentation technology. In 1959, the company established an animal health division with a farm and research facility in Terre Haute, Indiana.

By the 1950s, Pfizer had established offices in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom. In 1960, the company moved its medical research laboratory operations out of New York City to a new facility in Groton, Connecticut. In 1980, Pfizer launched ''Feldene'' (piroxicam), a prescription anti-inflammatory medication that became Pfizer's first product to reach $1billion in revenue.

In 1965, John Powers, Jr. became chief executive officer of the company, succeeding John McKeen.

As the area surrounding its Brooklyn plant fell into decline in the 1970s and 1980s, the company formed a public-private partnership with New York City that encompassed the construction of low- and middle-income housing, the refurbishment of apartment buildings for the homeless and the establishment of a charter school.

In 1972, Edmund T. Pratt Jr. became chief executive officer of the company, succeeding John Powers, Jr.

1980–2000: Development of Viagra, Zoloft, and Lipitor

In 1981, the company received approval for ''Diflucan'' ( fluconazole), the first oral treatment for severe fungal infections including candidiasis, blastomycosis, coccidiodomycosis, cryptococcosis, histoplasmosis, dermatophytosis, and pityriasis versicolor.

In 1986, Pfizer acquired the worldwide rights to ''Zithromax'' (azithromycin), a macrolide antibiotic that is recommended by the Infectious Disease Society of America as a first line treatment for certain cases of community-acquired pneumonia, from Pliva.

In 1989, Pfizer scientists Peter Dunn and Albert Wood created ''Viagra'' ( sildenafil) for treating high blood pressure and angina, a chest pain associated with coronary artery disease. In 1991, it was patented in the United Kingdom as a heart medication. Early trials for the medication showed that it did not work for the treatment of heart disease, but volunteers in the clinical trials had increased erections several days after taking the drug. It was patented in the United States in 1996 and received approval by the Food and Drug Administration in March 1998. In December 1998, Pfizer hired Bob Dole as a spokesperson for the drug. The patents for Viagra expired in 2020.

In 1991, William C. Steere, Jr. became chief executive officer of the company, succeeding Edmund T. Pratt Jr.

In 1991 Pfizer also began marketing ''Zoloft'' (sertraline), an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class developed nine years earlier by Pfizer chemists Kenneth Koe and Willard Welch. Sertraline is primarily prescribed for major depressive disorder in adult outpatients as well as obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder in both adults and children. In 2005, the year before it became a generic drug, sales were over $3billion and over 100million people had been treated with the drug. The patent for Zoloft expired in the summer of 2006.

In 1996, Eisai, in partnership with Pfizer, received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for donepezil under the brand Aricept for treatment of Alzheimer's disease; Pfizer also received approval for ''Norvasc'' (amlodipine), an antihypertensive drug of the dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker class.

In 1997, the company entered into a co-marketing agreement with Warner–Lambert for ''Lipitor'' (atorvastatin), a statin for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia. Although atorvastatin was the fifth statin to be developed, clinical trials showed that atorvastatin caused a more dramatic reduction in low-density lipoprotein pattern C (LDL-C) than the other statin drugs. Upon its patent expiration in 2011, Lipitor was the best-selling drug ever, with approximately $125billion in sales over 14.5 years.

2000–2010: Further expansion

In 2001, Henry McKinnell became