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

History

Pfizer is named after German-American cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart who launched their chemicals business Charles Pfizer and Company from a building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 1849. Here, 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.

By 1910, sales totalled nearly $3 million, and Pfizer became established as an expert in fermentation technology. These skills were applied to the mass production of penicillin during the 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 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, Zithromax, Aricept, Diflucan, Viagra).

In 2000, Pfizer merged with Warner-Lambert and acquired full rights to Lipitor (atorvastatin), the blockbuster statin previously jointly marketed by Warner-Lambert and Pfizer. Warner-Lambert was based in Morris Plains, New Jersey where their former headquarters has now become a major base of operations for Pfizer. The Morris Plains facility is mostly used for administrative purposes. Most of Pfizer's research is done in Groton, Connecticut; Sandwich, England; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Nagoya, Japan; St. Louis, Missouri and La Jolla, California. Currently Pfizer is attempting to sell its consumer healthcare department (formally Warner-Lamerert) for a price of $10 billion+ with tax. Among the bidders are Glaxo, and Johnson & Johnson.

In 2002, Pfizer merged with competitor Pharmacia to become the largest pharmaceutical company in the world. The merger was again driven in part by the desire to acquire full rights to a blockbuster product, this time Celebrex (celecoxib), the COX-2 selective inhibitor previously jointly marketed by Searle (acquired by Pharmacia) and Pfizer.

Sugen

Sugen was founded in 1991 in Redwood City, California as a partnership between the laboratories of Joseph Schlessinger at New York University Medical School and Axel Ullrich at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry (sic), and Steven Evans-Freke as a third co-founder. The focus of the enterprise was to develop drugs targeting intracellular signaling pathways to treat cancer. Pharmacia acquired Sugen in 1999, which merged with the pharmaceutical division of Monsanto in 2000 and was purchased by Pfizer in 2003. In 1999 Pharmacia took two of Sugen's compounds into man in colon cancer clinical trials: SU5416 and SU6668; the trials were discontinued, but both of these compounds were in the series that eventually led to SU11248. Sugen's laboratories were closed as part of the reorganization following Pfizer's purchase of Pharmacia. From the acquisition, the Sugen compounds SU11248 and SU11657 entered Pfizer's pipeline.^[1][2]. SU11248 was approved by the FDA for treatment of GIST and RCC cancers, in January of 2006, and is now marketed as Sutent (sunitinib).

Outsourcing

A separate and independent website from the official Pfizer Inc. website, on the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico provides information about Zoloft being produced in Puerto Rico (www.pridco.com). The website boasts that “16 out of the top 20 best selling pharmaceuticals in the United States” are manufactured in Puerto Rico and that Puerto Rico is a “pharmaceutical manufacturing mecca” (www.pridco.com). Several advantages for going offshore are described on the website, such advantages include labor laws, taxes and location. The website explains that Puerto Rico is the “lowest labor cost region” and that although the U.S. federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour applies, “a favorable wage differential exists” and that the average hourly compensation production costs in Puerto Rico is $13.47 (2000 data) compared to $17.94 (2000 data) in the U.S. mainland”. The website provides interesting information and insight regarding the production of top-selling pharmaceuticals such as Zoloft and pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer Inc.

Diversity

Pfizer received a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign starting in 2004, the third year of the report.