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The story
Founded by Charles F. Erhart and Charles Pfizer in 1849, in Brooklyn.1
1849–1950: Early history
Pfizer was founded in 1849 as Charles Pfizer & Company by Charles Pfizer and Charles F. Erhart, two cousins who had immigrated to the United States from Ludwigsburg, Germany. The business produced chemical compounds, and was headquartered on Bartlett Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where it 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 its 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.
In 1881, Pfizer moved its administrative headquarters to 81 Maiden Lane in Manhattan, presaging the company's expansion to Chicago, Illinois, a year later. By 1906 sales exceeded $3 million.
World War I caused a shortage of calcium citrate. Pfizer imported the compound from Italy for the manufacture of citric acid, and due to the disruption in supply, the company began a search for an alternative. They found this in the form of a fungus capable of fermenting sugar to citric acid. By 1919, the company was able to commercialize production of citric acid from this source. The company developed expertise in fermentation technology as a result. These skills were applied to the deep-submergence mass production of penicillin, an antibiotic, during World War II in response to the need to treat injured Allied soldiers. The company also embarked on a global soil collection program related to improving production yields of penicillin which ultimately resulted in 135,000 samples.
On June 2, 1942, the company incorporated under the Delaware General Corporation Law.
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 700-acre (280 ha) 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 $1 billion in revenue.
In 1965, John Powers, Jr. became chief executive officer (CEO) of the company, succeeding John McKeen.
As the area surrounding its Brooklyn, NY 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.
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In 1972, Edmund T. Pratt Jr. became CEO 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 CEO, 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 $3 billion and over 100 million 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 $125 billion in sales over 14.5 years.
2000–2010: Further expansion
In 2001, Henry McKinnell became CEO, replacing William C. Steere, Jr.
In 2002, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation purchased stock in Pfizer.
In 2004, the company received approval for Lyrica (pregabalin), an anticonvulsant and anxiolytic medication used to treat epilepsy, neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, restless leg syndrome, and generalized anxiety disorder. The United States patent on Lyrica was challenged by generic manufacturers and was upheld in 2014, extending the expiration date to 2018.
In July 2006, Jeff Kindler was named CEO, replacing Henry McKinnell.
On December 3, 2006, Pfizer ceased development of torcetrapib, a drug that increases production of HDL, which reduces LDL thought to be correlated to heart disease. During a Phase III clinical trial involving 15,000 patients, more deaths than expected occurred in the group that took the medicine, and the mortality rate of patients taking the combination of torcetrapib and Lipitor (82 deaths during the study) was 60% higher than those taking Lipitor alone (52 deaths during the study). Lipitor alone was not implicated in the results, but Pfizer lost nearly $1 billion developing the failed drug and its stock price dropped 11% on the day of the announcement.
Between 2007 and 2010, Pfizer spent $3.3 million on investigations and legal fees and recovered about $5.1 million, and had another $5 million of pending recoveries from civil lawsuits against makers of counterfeit prescription drugs. Pfizer has hired customs and narcotics experts worldwide to track down fakes and assemble evidence that can be used to pursue civil suits for trademark infringement.
In July 2008, Pfizer announced 275 job cuts at its manufacturing facility in Portage, Michigan. Portage was previously the world headquarters of Upjohn Company, which had been acquired as part of Pharmacia.
Acquisitions and mergers
In June 2000, Pfizer acquired Warner-Lambert outright for $116 billion. To satisfy conditions imposed by antitrust regulators at the Federal Trade Commission, Pfizer sold off or transferred stakes in several minor products, including RID (a shampoo for treatment of head lice, sold to Bayer) and Warner-Lambert's antidepressant Celexa (which competes with Zoloft). The acquisition created what was, at the time, the second-largest pharmaceutical company worldwide.
In 2003, Pfizer merged with Pharmacia, and in the process acquired Searle and SUGEN. Searle had developed Flagyl (metronidazole), a nitroimidazole antibiotic medication used particularly for anaerobic bacteria and protozoa. Searle also developed celecoxib (Celebrex) a COX-2 inhibitor and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to treat the pain and inflammation in osteoarthritis, acute pain in adults, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, painful menstruation, and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. SUGEN, a company focused on protein kinase inhibitors, had pioneered the use of ATP-mimetic small molecules to block signal transduction. The SUGEN facility was shut down in 2003 by Pfizer, with the loss of more than 300 jobs, and several programs were transferred to Pfizer. These included sunitinib (Sutent), a cancer medication which was approved for human use by the FDA in January 2006. A related compound, SU11654 (Toceranib), was also approved for cancer in dogs, and the ALK inhibitor Crizotinib also grew out of a SUGEN program.
In October 2006, the company announced it would acquire PowerMed.
On October 15, 2009, Pfizer acquired Wyeth for $68 billion in cash and stock, including the assumption of debt, making Pfizer the largest pharmaceutical company in the world. The acquisition of Wyeth provided Pfizer with a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, trademarked Prevnar 13; this is used for the prevention of invasive pneumococcal infections. The introduction of the original, 7-valent version of the vaccine, developed by Wyeth in February 2000, led to a 75% reduction in the incidence of invasive pneumococcal infections among children under age 5 in the United States. Pfizer introduced an improved version of the vaccine in 2010, for which it was granted a patent in India in 2017. Prevnar 13 provides coverage of 13 bacterial variants, expanding beyond the original 7-valent version. By 2012, the rate of invasive infections among children under age 5 had been reduced by an additional 50%.
2010–2020: Further discoveries and acquisitions
In 2010, Ian Read was named CEO.
In February 2011, Pfizer announced the closure of its UK research and development facility (formerly also a manufacturing plant) in Sandwich, Kent, which at the time employed 2,400 people. In March 2011, Pfizer acquired King Pharmaceuticals for $3.6 billion in cash. King produced emergency injectables such as the EpiPen.
On September 4, 2012, the FDA approved bosutinib (Bosulif) for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), a rare type of leukemia and a blood and bone marrow disease that affects primarily older adults. In November 2012, Pfizer received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for Xeljanz, a tofacitinib, for rheumatoid arthritis and ulcerative colitis. The drug had sales of $1.77 billion in 2018, and in January 2019, it was the top drug in the United States for direct-to-consumer advertising, passing adalimumab (Humira). In 2023, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) identified Xeljanz (tofacitinib) as one of five high-expenditure drugs that experienced significant net price increases without new clinical evidence to justify the hikes. Specifically, Xeljanz's wholesale acquisition cost rose by 6%, leading to an additional $72 million in costs to U.S. payers.
On February 1, 2013, Zoetis, the Agriculture Division of Pfizer and later Pfizer Animal Health, became a public company via an initial public offering, raising $2.2 billion. Later in 2013, Pfizer completed the corporate spin-off of its remaining stake in Zoetis.
In September 2014, the company acquired Innopharma for $225 million, plus up to $135 million in milestone payments, in a deal that expanded Pfizer's range of generic and injectable drugs.
On January 5, 2015, the company announced it would acquire a controlling interest in Redvax, expanding its vaccine portfolio targeting human cytomegalovirus. In February 2015, the company received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for palbociclib (Ibrance) for treatment of certain types of breast cancer. In March 2015, the company announced it would restart its collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company surrounding the Phase III trial of Tanezumab. In May 2015, Pfizer and a Bar-Ilan University laboratory announced a partnership based on the development of medical DNA nanotechnology. In June 2015, the company acquired Nimenrix and Mencevax, meningococcal vaccines, from GlaxoSmithKline for around $130 million. In September 2015, Pfizer acquired Hospira for $17 billion, including the assumption of debt. Hospira was the largest producer of generic injectable pharmaceuticals in the world. On November 23, 2015, Pfizer and Allergan announced a planned $160 billion merger, in the largest pharmaceutical deal ever and the third largest corporate merger in history. The proposed transaction contemplated that the merged company maintain Allergan's Republic of Ireland domicile, resulting in the new company being subject to corporation tax at the relatively low rate of 12.5%. The deal was to constitute a reverse merger, whereby Allergan acquired Pfizer, with the new company then changing its name to "Pfizer, plc". On April 6, 2016, Pfizer and Allergan terminated the merger agreement after the Obama administration and the United States Department of the Treasury introduced new laws intended to limit corporate inversions (the extent to which companies could move their headquarters overseas in order to reduce the amount of taxes they pay).
In June 2016, the company acquired Anacor Pharmaceuticals for $5.2 billion, expanding its portfolio in both inflammation and immunology drugs areas. In August 2016, the company made a $40 million bid for the assets of BIND Therapeutics, which was in bankruptcy. The same month, the company acquired Bamboo Therapeutics for $645 million, expanding its gene therapy offerings. In September 2016, the company acquired cancer drug-maker Medivation for $14 billion. In October 2016, the company licensed the anti-CTLA4 monoclonal antibody, ONC-392, from OncoImmune. In November 2016, Pfizer funded a $3,435,600 study with the CDC Foundation to research "screen-and-treat" strategies for cryptococcal disease in Botswana. In December 2016, Pfizer acquired AstraZeneca's small-molecule antibiotics business for $1.575 billion.
In January 2018, Pfizer announced that it would end its work on research into treatments for Alzheimer's disease and Parkinsonism (a symptom of Parkinson's disease and other conditions). The company said about 300 researchers would lose their jobs. In July 2018, the Food and Drug Administration approved enzalutamide, developed by Pfizer and Astellas Pharma for patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer. In August 2018, Pfizer signed an agreement with BioNTech to conduct joint research and development activities regarding mRNA-based influenza vaccines. In October 2018, effective January 1, 2019, Albert Bourla was promoted to CEO, succeeding Ian Read, his mentor.
In July 2019, the company acquired Therachon for up to $810 million, expanding its rare disease portfolio through Therachon's recombinant human fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 compound, aimed at treating conditions such as achondroplasia. Also in July, Pfizer acquired Array Biopharma for $10.6 billion, boosting its oncology pipeline. In August 2019, Pfizer merged its consumer health business with that of GlaxoSmithKline, into a joint venture owned 68% by GlaxoSmithKline and 32% by Pfizer, with plans to make it a public company. The transaction built on a 2018 transaction where GlaxoSmithKline acquired Novartis' stake in the GSK-Novartis consumer healthcare joint business. The transaction followed negotiations with other companies including Reckitt Benckiser, Sanofi, Johnson & Johnson, and Procter & Gamble. In September 2019, Pfizer initiated a study with the CDC Foundation to investigate the tracking of healthcare-associated infections, scheduled to run through to June 2023. In December 2019, Pfizer awarded the CDC Foundation a further $1,948,482 to continue its cryptococcal disease screening and treatment research in nine African countries.
COVID-19 and vaccine development
In March 2020, Pfizer joined the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator funding vehicle to expedite development of treatments against COVID-19. The $125 million initiative was launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with Mastercard and Wellcome Trust, with additional funding announced shortly after from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Madonna.
The following month, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health announced the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) public-private partnership to develop a coordinated research strategy for prioritizing and speeding up development of COVID-19 vaccines and pharmaceutical products. Pfizer joined the partnership as an industry "leadership organization", and participated as a collaborator in ACTIV-led clinical trials. CEO Albert Bourla attended the GAVI COVAX AMC 2021 Investment Opportunity Launch Event, otherwise named One World Protected, on April 15, 2021.
In Canada, Pfizer endorsed the use of a vaccine passport mobile app developed by CANImmunize in order to record and track status of COVID-19 vaccination.
As the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic became apparent, Pfizer partnered with BioNTech to study and develop COVID-19 mRNA vaccine candidates. Unlike many of its competitors, Pfizer took no initial research funds from the United States' Operation Warp Speed vaccine development program, instead choosing to invest roughly $2 billion of its own funds. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has said that he declined money from Operation Warp Speed to avoid government intervention, stating later that "when you get money from someone that always comes with strings. They want to see how we are going to progress, what type of moves you are going to do. They want reports. And also, I wanted to keep Pfizer out of politics, by the way."
In May 2020, Pfizer began testing four different COVID-19 vaccine variations using lipid nanoparticle technology provided by Canadian biotechnology company Acuitas Therapeutics. Vaccines were injected into the first human participants in the U.S. in early May. In July 2020, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that two of the partners' four mRNA vaccine candidates had won fast track designation from the FDA. The company began Phase II-III testing on 30,000 people in the last week of July 2020 and was slated to be paid $1.95 billion for 100 million doses of the vaccine by the US government. In September 2020, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that they had completed talks with the European Commission to provide an initial 200 million vaccine doses to the EU, with the option to supply another 100 million doses at a later date.
From Wikipedia’s article on Pfizer, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8