Pfizer, Inc.

Pfizer, Inc., one of the world’s largest research-based pharmaceutical and biomedical companies, dedicated to discovering, developing, manufacturing, and marketing prescription medications for both humans and animals. Headquarters are in New York City.

Pfizer was founded in Brooklyn, New York, in 1849 as Charles Pfizer & Company by the German chemist and entrepreneur Charles Pfizer and his cousin Charles Erhart, a confectioner. The company, then a fine-chemicals business, was financed with a $2,500 loan from Pfizer’s father. Pfizer and Erhart achieved immediate success with their first product, a flavourful form of santonin—an anthelmintic drug used to treat intestinal worms, a common affliction in the mid-1800s. The subsequent demand for disinfectants, preservatives, and painkillers during the American Civil War (1861–65) doubled the company’s revenue and allowed for its expansion. In the late 1800s its citric acid production soared with the increasing popularity of cola drinks, producing decades of growth for the company.

When Erhart died in 1891, Pfizer gained full control of the company. In 1900 he filed a certificate of incorporation; the company would remain privately held until 1942. In 1905 Pfizer’s youngest son, Emile, was appointed president of the company; Charles Pfizer died the following year.

In 1941, at the request of the U.S. government, Pfizer—the only company using fermentation technology to mass-produce penicillin—expedited production to treat Allied soldiers fighting in World War II. The company underwent significant expansion during the following decade with the creation of its international and agricultural divisions and its Pfizer pharmaceutical sales force, as well as its partnership with the Japanese company Taito to produce and distribute antibiotics (1955; Pfizer fully acquired Taito in 1983). Pfizer continued to expand into the 1970s, with acquisitions such as the pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturer Mack Illertissen (1971).

In the 21st century Pfizer persisted in its acquisition of pharmaceutical companies, including Warner-Lambert followed by Pharmacia Corporation (2003) and Wyeth (2009). Pfizer also joined UN Global Impact (2002), the world’s largest global corporate responsibility initiative. In 2004 Dow Jones and Co. selected Pfizer to be included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. In 2015 Pfizer announced that it would merge with Allergan, the Dublin-based maker of Botox, in a deal that was valued at $160 billion and would allow Pfizer to reincorporate overseas, thereby lowering its U.S. federal taxes. However, in April 2016 the U.S. government introduced regulations to prevent such tax-inversion deals, and shortly thereafter the merger was called off.

Pfizer’s most prominent products include the antidepressant Zoloft, the erectile-dysfunction drug Viagra, and the antidepressant and antianxiety drug Xanax.