Pfizer

Type: Public (NYSE: PFE)
Founded: Brooklyn, New York, USA (1849)
Headquarters: New York City, New York, USA
Key people: Jeff Kindler, CEO, David Shedlarz, VC
Industry: Health Care
Products: AccuprilŽ, LipitorŽ, ViagraŽ
Website: www.pfizer.com

General Information

Pfizer Incorporated (NYSE: PFE) is the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical company. The company is based in New York City. It produces the number-one selling drug Lipitor (atorvastatin, used to lower blood cholesterol); the oral antifungal medication Diflucan (fluconazole), the long-acting antibiotic Zithromax (azithromycin), the well-known erectile dysfunction drug Viagra (sildenafil citrate), and the anti inflammatory Celebrex (celecoxib) (also known as Celebra in some countries outside USA and Canada, mainly in South America).

Pfizer's shares were made a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average on April 8, 2004.

With 2005 actual spending of $7.4 billion in research & development (R&D), Pfizer boasts the industry's largest pharmaceutical R&D organization: Pfizer Global Research and Development.

History

Pfizer is named after German-American cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhardt who launched their chemicals business Charles Pfizer and Company from a building at the intersection of Harrison Avenue and Barlett Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 1849. There, they produced an antiparasitic called santonin. This was an immediate success, although it was the production of citric acid that really kick-started Pfizer's growth in the 1880s. Pfizer continued to buy property to expand its lab and factory on the block bounded by Bartlett Street; Harrison Avenue; Gerry Street; and Flushing Avenue. That facility is still utilized for Backshop purposes. Pfizer established its original administrative headquarters at 81 Maiden Lane in Manhattan.

By 1910, sales totaled nearly $3 million, and Pfizer became established as an expert in fermentation technology. These skills were applied to the mass production of penicillin during World War II, in response to an appeal from the US government. The antibiotic was urgently needed to treat injured Allied soldiers, and it soon became known as 'the miracle drug'. In fact, most of the penicillin that went ashore with the troops on D-Day was made by Pfizer.

By the 1950s, Pfizer was established in Iran, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom.

During the 1980s and 1990s Pfizer underwent a period of growth sustained by the discovery and marketing of multiple successful drugs (Zoloft,Lipitor,Norvasc, Zithromax, Aricept, Diflucan, Viagra).