Pfizer Incorporated (nyse: PFE) is a major pharmaceutical company, which ranks number one in the world in sales. The company is based in New York City, and its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut. It produces the number-one selling drug Lipitor (atorvastatin, used to lower blood cholesterol); the neuropathic pain/fibromyalgia drug Lyrica (pregabalin); 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.

Spending $7.65 billion in research & development (R&D) in 2006, Pfizer has 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 Bartlett StreetKenneth T. Jackson: The Encyclopedia of New York City: The New York Historical Society; Yale University Press; 1995. P. 895. 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 U.S. 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, Iran, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Turkey 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).

In 2005, Pfizer was among 53 entities that contributed the maximum of $250,000 to the second inauguration of President George W. Bush.