Pfizer Inc. /'fa?z?

r/ is an American global pharmaceutical corporation headquart

ered in New York City,[3] with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut.
It is among the world's largest pharmaceutical companies.[4] Pfizer is listed o
n the New York Stock Exchange, and its shares have been a component of the Dow J
ones Industrial Average since 2004.[5]
Pfizer develops and produces medicines and vaccines for a wide range of medical
disciplines, including immunology, oncology, cardiology, diabetology/endocrinolo
gy, and neurology. Pfizer's products include the blockbuster drug Lipitor (atorv
astatin), used to lower LDL blood cholesterol; Lyrica (pregabalin) for neuropath
ic pain/fibromyalgia; Diflucan (fluconazole), an oral antifungal medication; Zit
hromax (azithromycin), an antibiotic; Viagra (sildenafil) for erectile dysfuncti
on; and Celebrex/Celebra (celecoxib), an anti-inflammatory drug.
Pfizer was founded in 1849 by cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles F. Erhart in Ne
w York City as a manufacturer of fine chemicals. Its discovery of Terramycin (ox
ytetracycline) in 1950 put it on a path towards becoming a research-based pharma
ceutical company. Pfizer has made numerous acquisitions, including Warner Lambert
in 2000, Pharmacia in 2003, and Wyeth in 2009 (the largest of the three at $68 b
illion).[6][7]
In 2016, Pfizer Inc. was expected to merge with Allergan plc, in a deal that wou
ld have been worth $160 billion, to create the Ireland-based "Pfizer plc".[8] Th
e merger was called off in April 2016.
Contents
1 History
1.1 19th century
1.2 20th century
1.3 2000 10
1.3.1 Warner Lambert acquisition
1.3.2 Pharmacia acquisition
1.3.3 Wyeth acquisition
1.3.4 King Pharmaceuticals acquisition
1.4 2011 present
1.4.1 Zoetis
1.4.2 Attempted AstraZeneca acquisition
1.4.3 Hospira
1.4.4 Attempted Allergan acquisition
1.5 Acquisition history
2 Operations
2.1 Partnerships
2.2 Research and development
2.3 Board of directors
2.4 Senior management
3 Products
3.1 Pharmaceutical products
3.2 Consumer healthcare products
4 Promotional practices
5 Litigation
5.1 Kelo case
5.2 Quigley Co.
5.3 Bjork Shiley heart valve
5.4 Abdullahi v. Pfizer, Inc.
5.5 GMO virus
5.6 Blue Cross Blue Shield
5.7 Brigham Young University
6 Environmental record
7 Political lobbying

8 Employment and diversity

9 Involvement in Developing World health issues
10 See also
11 References
12 External links
History
19th century
Charles Pfizer
Pfizer is named after German-American Charles Pfizer who co-founded the company
with his cousin Charles F. Erhart. Originally from Ludwigsburg, Germany, they la
unched a chemicals business, Charles Pfizer and Company, from a building at the
intersection of Harrison Avenue and Bartlett Street[9] in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
, in 1849. There, they produced an antiparasitic called santonin. This was an im
mediate success, although it was the production of citric acid that really kickstarted 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; G
erry Street; and Flushing Avenue. Pfizer's original administrative headquarters
was at 81 Maiden Lane in Manhattan.[9]
20th century
By 1906, sales totaled $3.4 million.[10]
World War I caused a shortage of calcium citrate that Pfizer imported from Italy
for the manufacture of citric acid, and the company began a search for an alter
native supply. Pfizer chemists learned of a fungus that ferments sugar to citric
acid and were able to commercialize production of citric acid from this source
in 1919. As a result, Pfizer developed expertise in fermentation technology. The
se skills were applied to the mass production of the antibiotic penicillin durin
g World War II in response to the need of the U.S. government to treat injured A
llied soldiers; most of the penicillin that went ashore with the troops on D-Day
was made by Pfizer.[11]
In the 1940s, penicillin became very inexpensive. As a result, Pfizer searched f
or new antibiotics with greater profit potential. Pfizer's discovery and commerc
ialization of Terramycin (oxytetracycline) in 1950 changed the company from a ma
nufacturer of fine chemicals to a research-based pharmaceutical company. To augm
ent its research in fermentation technology, Pfizer developed a drug discovery p
rogram focusing on in vitro synthesis. Pfizer also established an animal health
division in 1959 with an 700-acre (2.8 km2) farm and research facility in Terre
Haute, Indiana.
By the 1950s, Pfizer had established offices in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, M
exico, Panama, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom. In 1960, the company moved i
ts medical research laboratory operations out of New York City to a new facility
in Groton, Connecticut. In 1980 Pfizer launched Feldene (piroxicam), a prescrip
tion anti-inflammatory medication that became Pfizer's first product to reach on
e billion United States dollars in total sales.[12]
During the 1980s and 1990s, Pfizer Corporation growth was sustained by the disco
very and marketing of Zoloft, Lipitor, Norvasc, Zithromax, Aricept, Diflucan, an
d Viagra.
2000 10
In this decade, Pfizer grew by mergers, including those with Warner Lambert (2000)
, Pharmacia (2003), and Wyeth (2009).
On June 26, 2006, Pfizer announced it would sell its Consumer Healthcare unit (m
anufacturer of Listerine, Nicorette, Visine, Sudafed and Neosporin) to Johnson &

Johnson for $16.6 billion.[13][14][15]

Development of torcetrapib, a drug that increases production of HDL, or "good ch
olesterol", which reduces LDL thought to be correlated to heart disease, was can
celled in December 2006. During a Phase III clinical trial involving 15,000 pati
ents, more deaths occurred in the group that took the medicine than expected, an
d a sixty percent increase in mortality was seen among patients taking the combi
nation of torcetrapib and Lipitor versus Lipitor alone. Lipitor alone was not im
plicated in the results, but Pfizer lost nearly $1 billion developing the failed
drug and the market value of the company plummeted afterwards.[16][17][18]
A July 2010 article in BusinessWeek reported that Pfizer was seeing more success
in its battle against makers of counterfeit prescription drugs by pursuing civi
l lawsuits rather than criminal prosecution. Pfizer has hired customs and narcot
ics experts from all over the globe to track down fakes and assemble evidence th
at can be used to pursue civil suits for trademark infringement. Since 2007, Pfi
zer has spent $3.3 million on investigations and legal fees and recovered about
$5.1 million, with another $5 million tied up in ongoing cases.[19]
On May 6, 2013, Pfizer told The Associated Press it would begin selling Viagra d
irectly to patients via its website.[20]
Warner Lambert acquisition
Pfizer acquired Warner Lambert in 2000 for $111.8 billion.[21] Warner Lambert was fo
unded as a Philadelphia drug store in 1856 by William R. Warner. Inventing a tab
let-coating process gained Warner a place in the Smithsonian Institution. Parke Da
vis was founded in Detroit in 1866 by Hervey Parke and George Davis. Warner Lamber
t took over Parke Davis in 1976, and acquired Wilkinson Sword in 1993 and Agouron
in 1999.
Pharmacia acquisition
In 2002, Pfizer merged with Pharmacia. The merger was again driven in part by th
e desire to acquire full rights to a product, this time Celebrex (celecoxib), th
e COX-2 selective inhibitor previously jointly marketed by Searle (acquired by P
harmacia) and Pfizer. In the ensuing years, Pfizer carried out a massive restruc
turing that resulted in numerous site closures and the loss of jobs including Te
rre Haute, Indiana; Holland, Michigan; Groton, Connecticut; Brooklyn, New York;
Sandwich, England; and Puerto Rico.
Pharmacia had been formed by a series of mergers and acquisitions from its prede
cessors, including Searle, Upjohn and SUGEN.
Searle was founded in Omaha, Nebraska, in April 1888. The founder was Gideon Dan
iel Searle. In 1908, the company was incorporated in Chicago, Illinois. In 1941,
the company established headquarters in Skokie, Illinois. It was acquired by th
e Monsanto Company, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1985.
The Upjohn Company was a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm founded in 1886 in Ka
lamazoo, Michigan, by Dr. William E. Upjohn, an 1875 graduate of the University
of Michigan medical school. The company was originally formed to make friable pi
lls, which were specifically designed to be easily digested. In 1995, Upjohn mer
ged with Pharmacia, to form Pharmacia & Upjohn. Pharmacia was created in April 2
000 through the merger of Pharmacia & Upjohn with the Monsanto Company and its G
.D. Searle unit. The merged company was based in Peapack, New Jersey. The agricu
ltural division was spun off from Pharmacia, as Monsanto, in preparation for the
close of the acquisition by Pfizer.[22]
SUGEN, a company focused on protein kinase inhibitors, was founded in 1991 in Re
dwood City, California, and acquired by Pharmacia in 1999. The company pioneered
the use of ATP-mimetic small molecules to block signal transduction. After the

Pfizer merger, the SUGEN site was shut down in 2003, with the loss of over 300 j
obs, and several programs were transferred to Pfizer. These included sunitinib (
Sutent), which was approved for human use by the FDA in January 2006, passed $1
billion in annual revenues for Pfizer in 2010.[23] A related compound, SU11654 (
Toceranib), was also approved for canine tumors, and the ALK inhibitor Crizotini
b also grew out of a SUGEN program.[24]
In 2008, Pfizer announced 275 job cuts at the Kalamazoo manufacturing facility.
Kalamazoo was previously the world headquarters for the Upjohn Company.[25]
Wyeth acquisition
On January 26, 2009, after more than a year of talks between the two companies,
Pfizer agreed to buy pharmaceuticals rival Wyeth for a combined US$68 billion in
cash, shares and loans, including some US$22.5 billion lent by five major Wall
Street banks. The deal cemented Pfizer's position as the largest pharmaceutical
company in the world, with the merged company generating over US$20 billion in c
ash each year, and was the largest corporate merger since AT&T and BellSouth's U
S$70 billion deal in March 2006.[26] The combined company was expected to save U
S$4 billion annually through streamlining; however, as part of the deal, both co
mpanies must repatriate billions of dollars in revenue from foreign sources to t
he United States, which will result in higher tax costs. The acquisition was com
pleted on October 15, 2009, making Wyeth a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer.[7]
The merger was broadly criticized. Harvard Business School's Gary Pisano told Th
e Wall Street Journal, "the record of big mergers and acquisitions in Big Pharma
has just not been good. There's just been an enormous amount of shareholder wea
lth destroyed."[27] Analysts said at the time, "The Warner Lambert and Pharmacia m
ergers do not appear to have achieved gains for shareholders, so it is unclear w
ho benefits from the Wyeth Pfizer merger to many critics."[28]
King Pharmaceuticals acquisition
In October 2010, Pfizer agreed to buy King Pharmaceuticals for $3.6 billion in c
ash or $14.25 per share: an approximately 40% premium over King's closing share
price October 11, 2010.[29]
2011 present
In February 2011, it was announced that Pfizer was to close its UK research and
development facility (formerly also a manufacturing plant) in Sandwich, Kent, wh
ich at the time employed 2,400 people.[30] However, as of 2014, Pfizer has a red
uced presence at the site;[31] it also has a UK research unit in Cambridge.[32]
On September 4, 2012, the FDA approved a Pfizer pill for a rare type of leukemia
. The medicine, called Bosulif, treats chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), a blo
od and bone marrow disease that usually affects older adults.[33]
In July 2014, the company announced it would acquire 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.[34]
On January 5, 2015, the company announced it would acquire a controlling interes
t in Redvax for an undisclosed sum. This deal expanded the company's vaccine por
tfolio targeting human cytomegalovirus.[35] In March 2015, the company announced
it would restart its collaboration with Eli Lilly surrounding the phase III tri
al of Tanezumab. Pfizer is expected to receive an upfront sum of $200 million.[3
6] In June 2015, the company acquired two meningitis drugs from GlaxoSmithKline Ni
menrix and Mencevax for around $130 million, expanding the company's meningococcal
disease portfolio of drugs.[37]
Zoetis
Main article: Zoetis

Plans to spin out Zoetis, the Agriculture Division of Pfizer and later Pfizer An
imal Health, were announced in 2012. Pfizer filed for registration of a Class A
stock with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on August 13, 2012.[38] Z
oetis's IPO on February 1, 2013, sold 86.1 million shares for US$2.2 billion.[39
] Pfizer retained 414 million Class B shares, giving it an 83% controlling stake
in the firm.[40] The offering's lead underwriters were JPMorgan Chase, Bank of
America, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley.[39] Most of the money raised through
the IPO was used to pay off existing Pfizer debt.[41]
Attempted AstraZeneca acquisition
In April 2014, it was reported that Pfizer had reignited a $100 billion takeover
bid for the UK-based AstraZeneca,[42][43] sparking political controversy in the
UK,[44] as well as in the US.[45] On May 19, 2014, a "final offer" of 55 a share
was rejected by the AstraZeneca board, which said the bid was too low and impos
ed too many risks. If successful, the takeover the biggest in British history would
have made Pfizer the world's largest drug company.[46] Hopes for a renewed bid l
ater in the year were dashed when Pfizer signed a major cancer drug deal with Me
rck KGaA, selling its sharing rights to develop an experimental immunotherapy dr
ug for a fee of $850 million.[47]
Hospira
In February 2015, Pfizer and Hospira agreed that Pfizer would acquire Hospira fo
r $15.2 billion,[48] a deal in which Hospira shareholders would receive $90 in c
ash for each share they owned.[49][50] Including debt, the deal is valued at aro
und $17 billion.[48] Hospira is the largest producer of generic injectable pharm
aceuticals in the world.[51]
Attempted Allergan acquisition
Main article: Allergan, Plc
On November 23, 2015, Pfizer and Allergan, Plc announced their intention to merg
e for an approximate sum of $160 billion, making it the largest pharmaceutical d
eal ever, and the third largest corporate merger in history. As part of the deal
, the Pfizer CEO, Ian Read, was to remain as CEO and chairman of the new company
, to be called "Pfizer, plc", with Allergan's CEO, Brent Saunders, becoming pres
ident and chief operating officer. As part of the deal, Allergan shareholders wo
uld receive 11.3 shares of the company, with Pfizer shareholders receiving one.
The terms proposed that the merged company would maintain Allergan's Irish domic
ile, resulting in the new company being subject to corporation tax at the Irish
rate of 12.5%.[52] The deal was to constitute a reverse merger, whereby Allergan
acquired Pfizer, with the new company then changing its name to "Pfizer, plc".[
53][54][55] The deal was expected to be completed in the second half of 2016, su
bject to certain conditions: US and EU approval, approval from both sets of shar
eholders, and the completion of Allergan's divestiture of its generics division
to Teva Pharmaceuticals (expected in the first quarter of 2016).[53] On April 6,
2016, Pfizer and Allergan announced they would be calling off the merger after
the Obama administration introduced new laws intended to limit corporate tax inv
ersions (the extent to which companies could move their headquarters overseas in
order to reduce the amount of taxes they pay).[56]
Acquisition history
[show]
Illustration of the company's mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs and historical
predecessors
Operations
The headquarters of Pfizer Japan in Tokyo
Pfizer is organised into nine principal operating divisions: Primary Care, Speci
alty Care, Oncology, Emerging Markets, Established Products, Consumer Healthcare
, Nutrition, Animal Health, and Capsugel.[66]
Partnerships

In May 2015, Pfizer and a Bar-Ilan University laboratory announced a partnership

based on the development of medical DNA nanotechnology.[67]
Research and development
Pfizer's research and development activities are organised into two principal gr
oups: the PharmaTherapeutics Research & Development Group, which focuses on the
discovery of small molecules and related modalities; and the BioTherapeutics Res
earch & Development Group, which focuses on large-molecule research, including v
accines.[66] In 2007, Pfizer invested $8.1 billion in research and development,
the largest R&D investment in the pharmaceutical industry.[68]
Pfizer has R&D facilities in the following locations:
Groton, Connecticut
La Jolla, California (around 1,000 staff, focused on cancer drugs);[69]
South San Francisco, California
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Kalamazoo, Michigan
St. Louis, Missouri
Sandwich, United Kingdom
Cambridge, United Kingdom.
In 2007, Pfizer announced plans to close or sell the Loughbeg API facility, loca
ted at Loughbeg, Ringaskiddy, Cork, Ireland by mid to end of 2008. In 2007, Pfiz
er announced plans to completely close the Ann Arbor, Nagoya and Amboise Researc
h facilities by the end of 2008, eliminating 2,160 jobs and idling the $300 mill
ion Michigan facility, which in recent years had seen expansion worth millions o
f dollars.[70]
On June 18, 2007, Pfizer announced it would move the Animal Health Research (VMR
D) division based in Sandwich, England, to Kalamazoo, Michigan.[71] On February
1, 2011, Pfizer announced the closure of the Research and Development centre in
Sandwich, with the loss of 2,400 jobs.[72] Pfizer subsequently announced it woul
d be maintaining a significant presence at Sandwich, with around 650 staff conti
nuing to be based at the site.[73]
On September 1, 2011, Pfizer announced it had agreed to a 10-year lease of more
than 180,000 square feet of research space from MIT in a building to be construc
ted just north of the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The space will hou
se Pfizer's Cardiovascular, Metabolic and Endocrine Disease Research Unit and it
s Neuroscience Research Unit; Pfizer anticipated moving into the space once it w
as completed in late 2013.[74]
As of 2013, products in Pfizer's development pipeline included dimebon and tanez
umab.
Board of directors
As of November 2014, the members of the board of directors of Pfizer are:[75]
Dennis Ausiello
W. Don Cornwell
Frances D. Fergusson
Helen Hobbs
Constance Horner
Ian Read (chairman)
James M. Kilts
George Lorch
Suzanne Nora Johnson
Shantanu Narayen
Stephen Sanger

James C. Smith
Marc Tessier-Lavigne
Senior management
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman of the Board: Ian Read[76]
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Executive Vice President: Frank A. D'Ameli
o
Strategy and Business Development and Executive Vice President: Laurie Olsen
Chief Compliance & Risk Officer and Executive Vice President: Rady Johnson
Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President: Freda Lewis Hall
General Counsel and Executive Vice President: Doug Lankler
Chief Communications Officer and Executive Vice President: Sally Susman
President of Global R&D: Mikael Dolsten
President
Pfizer Global Manufacturing: Anthony Maddaluna
Executive Vice President Worldwide Human Resources: Chuck Hill
President and General Manager, Global Innovative Pharmaceuticals: Geno Germa
no
President and General Manager, Global Established Pharmaceuticals: John Youn
g
President and General Manager, Vaccines, Oncology and Consumer: Albert Bourl
a
Products
Pharmaceutical products
United States incidence of
uction of the 7-valent and
United States incidence of
uction of the 7-valent and

invasive pneumococcal disease before and after introd

13-valent pneumococcal vaccines.
invasive pneumococcal disease before and after introd
13-valent pneumococcal vaccines.[77]

Key current and historical Pfizer products include:

Atorvastatin (trade name Lipitor), a statin for the treatment of hypercholes
terolemia. Lipitor was developed by Pfizer legacy company Warner-Lambert and fir
st marketed in 1996.[78] Although atorvastatin was the fifth drug in the class o
f statins to be developed, clinical trials showed that atorvastatin caused a mor
e dramatic reduction in LDL-C than the other statin drugs. From 1996 to 2012 und
er the trade name Lipitor, atorvastatin became the world's best-selling drug of
all time, with more than $125 billion in sales over approximately 14.5 years.[79
] Lipitor alone "provided up to a quarter of Pfizer Inc.'s annual revenue for ye
ars."[79