Company: Pfizer Incorporated

Founders:

· Charles Pfizer (Co-founder)

· Charles Erhart (Co-founder)

Industry: Health Care

History:

In 1849, German-American cousins Charles Erhardt and Charles Pfizer launched Charles Pfizer and Company, an enterprise dealing with chemicals. They started in an edifice situated at the intersection of Barlett Street and Harrison Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They produced their first product in the form of the anti-parasitic drug santonin. The substance was a success but what really spurred the then-fledgling company to new heights was their production of citric acid in the 1880s. Through the years the company continued to acquire properties and expand its holdings on the block lined by Harrison Avenue, Bartlett Street, Flushing Avenue, and Gerry Street. Up to the present the area is still used for backshop functions.

Pfizer formed its first administrative base at 81 Maiden Lane in Manhattan.

Their sales reached $3 million by 1910, and the company became established as an authority in fermentation technology. This proficiency was made to considerable use when in World War II, the U.S. government expressed a strong demand for the mass production of the antibiotic penicillin. The drug was used to treat Allied soldiers who suffered injuries. So much was its curative success that it was popularly known informally as the “miracle drug.” At the onset of the Invasion of Normandy, a substantial portion of the penicillin that was shipped with the troops was Pfizer-made.

By the 1950s, the company had expanded so much that it had established operations in Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Iran, Belgium, Canada, Puerto, Rico, the United Kingdom, Turkey, and Panama.

During the ‘80s and the ‘90s, the company grew further. This was made possible by the discovery and subsequent marketing of various drugs that were successful in the market: Lipitor, Viagra, Zoloft, Zithromax, Diflucan, and Aricept.

Today Pfizer Incorporated is the top pharmaceutical company in terms of sales. It had 105,000 employees in 2005 and in 2007, reported $48.418 billion in revenue.

Leadership:

· Jeffrey B. Kindler – Chairman and CEO

· Richard H. Bagger – SVP; Head of Worldwide Public Affairs and Policy

· Edmund P. Harrigan – SVP Worldwide Business Development