The story of Pfizer began in New York City in 1849, when a pair of German immigrants, cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles F. Erhart, received a $2,500 loan from Charles Pfizer’s father to purchase a commercial building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

This is where they embarked upon a joint business venture in the chemical manufacturing industry.

Pfizer’s first product WAS SANTONIN to treat parasitic worms.

Combining their talents, the cousins housed their product within tasty confections…such as candy lozenges…and toffee-flavored sugar cream cones.

In 1862 PFIZER became the first company to develop tartaric acid…also known as cream of tartare.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, a massive need for painkillers and antiseptics erupted.

Pfizer expanded their business to include the antiseptics…such as iodine and camphor. They also made pain killers such as chloroform and morphine.

Then in 1919 the Pfizer scientists would pioneer a DEEP TANK FERMENTATION PROCESS….the principles which would later be applied to the production of PENICILLIN.

Pfizer would benefit in a big way during World War 2 when the Government appealed to the pharmaceutical companies for their support in producing penicillin.

After World War 2 the prices and usage of Penicillin declined.
Pfizer had to look for new and more-profitable antibiotics to produce.

Pfizer then pivoted from a fine chemical company to a research based pharmaceutical company… giving birth to Pfizer’s “New Drug Discovery” program.

In 1951 Pfizer expanded World-Wide. They began to acquire other companies and also expanded into other arenas such as Animal Health.

While Pfizer’s Pharmaceutical company began to expand and dominate, questions about salacious business practices began to surface.

…AND SO BEGAN THE FRAUD and VIOLATIONS.

☝️
PFIZER
busted by
The
Federal
Trade (FTC)
Commission
in
1958.

In 1961…
the Justice Department filed criminal antitrust charges against
Pfizer,
American Cyanamid, and Bristol-Myers,
accusing each company of charging egregiously high prices and monopolizing the production and distribution of drugs…dating back to 1953!

In 1963…
the FTC ruled that the accused companies in its 1958 complaint did in fact rig antibiotic prices.

The FTC also noted that “unclean hands and bad faith played a major role”in Pfizer being granted the tetracycline patent.

By the 1970s…

PFIZER’s Research & Development(R&D) focused on BLOCKBUSTER DRUGS.

A BLOCKBUSTER is any drug that generates at least $1 billion in revenue a year for the developing company.

Pharmaceutical companies are allowed a “20 year window” of exclusivity after what time the drug is able to be produced and marketed by other companies…usually generic companies.

10 years of that window are usually spent in the development phase.

☝️Having once been in the pharmaceutical industry myself, (thankfully been out for 10 years) the time to market and seize profits is usually dwindled down to 7 years.