Pfizer, Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation headquartered in New York City, and with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut, United States. Pfizer develops and produces medicines and vaccines for a wide range of conditions including in the areas of immunology and inflammation, oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, neuroscience and pain.
Pfizer was founded in 1849 by cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart with $2,500 in seed money borrowed from Pfizer’s father. Combining the skills of both men, Pfizer, a chemist, and Erhart, a confectioner, developed their first product santonin, an antiparasitic. It was used to treat intestinal worms, a common affliction in mid-19th century America. The almond-toffee flavored drug was an instant success.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Pfizer developed many of today’s best-known pharmaceutical drugs such as Zoloft, an antidepressant, Lipitor, for lowering blood cholesterol, and Viagra, used to treat erectile dysfunction. Despite it being ranked 3rd, Pfizer is the most profitable drug company in the world, with a profit margin of an astounding 43%, worth $22 billion.
