Jan 19, 2016 Pfizer Inc. has agreed to combine with Allergan (AGN) under the new name of Pfizer Plc. and will be based in Ireland to reduce corporate taxes.
Pfizer Inc, was founded in 1849. Pfizer is the largest seller of pharmaceutical drugs in the world, as measured by annual sales, Annual revenues of Pfizer, Inc are over 50 billion dollars. Corporate headquarters are in New York, while research and development headquarters are in La Jolla, CA. Pfizer merged with Warner-Lambert and Pharmacia to create the world's fastest-growing major pharmaceutical company. Lipitor had $13 billion in 2006 sales.
Feb 6 2014
- Pfizer Inc beat back generic competition for the pain medicine Lyrica,
its biggest product, with a U.S. appeals court ruling that competing
generic products would infringe on the company's patents. The U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which handles all patent appeals,
ruled on Thursday that Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc, Lupin Ltd, Actavis
Inc and other generic competitors had infringed on Pfizer's patents.
Sept 2009 - Pfizer Inc agreed to plead guilty to a criminal charge relating to promotions of its now-withdrawn Bextra pain medicine and will pay a record $2.3 billion to settle allegations it improperly marketed 13 medicines.
Pfizer acquired Wyeth in 2009.
November 2009 - A Philadelphia jury asked Pfizer Inc to pay $28 million in punitive damages to a breast cancer survivor who had used the company's hormone replacement drugs for 11 years. That followed a $6 million award the jury ordered Pfizer to pay in compensatory damages after deciding that the drugs Premarin, Prempro and Provera contributed to her cancer, and that the drugmakers failed to adequately warn about the risks associated with the medicines. Pfizer inherited hundreds of personal injury lawsuits involving Premarin and Prempro, which are used to counter the effects of menopause, with its recent $67 billion acquisition of Wyeth. Provera is sold by Pharmacia & Upjohn, which Pfizer acquired in 2003. Pfizer said it would challenge the latest verdict and another earlier verdict that went against Wyeth.
Pfizer Drugs
Aricept (donepezil
hydrochloride tablets) is a
pharmaceutical
drug used in Alzheimer's disease.
Celebrex (celecoxib) - Celebrex can triple the risk of heart attacks and
strokes, according to a study by the US National Cancer Institute. Current
data do not show that Pfizer Inc.'s pain reliever Celebrex is safe for
treating rheumatoid arthritis in children, however in December 2006 Pfizer
Inc. won FDA approval to promote its Celebrex
pain reliever for treating
children age two and older who have rheumatoid arthritis.
Ads for Pfizer Inc.'s Celebrex arthritis drug began again in April
2007after more than a two-year hiatus, with an unusual upfront focus on
its risks rather than its benefits. The ads stress that the risks from
Celebrex are similar to those of rival treatments such as ibuprofen and
naproxen. Pfizer halted its direct-to-consumer TV ads for Celebrex in
December 2004, several months after Merck & Co. withdrew its similar Vioxx
medicine due to elevated risk of heart attack in long-term users.
Chantix drug -
varenicline - is FDA-approved and marketed by
Pfizer
Diflucan (fluconazole)
Exubera - Pfizer Inc's inhaled insulin product Exubera should not be prescribed on
Britain's state health service, the country's cost-effectiveness watchdog, NICE,
recommended in April, 2006. Pfizer, the world's biggest pharmaceuticals group,
said the opinion from the National Institute for Health and Clinical
Excellence (NICE) was "perverse and short-sighted." Exubera won marketing
approval in both Europe and the United States in January, 2006 as a
treatment for patients with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium) tablets
is a statin drug.
Lyrica -
pregabalin -
Lyrica, is a 3-substituted analogue of gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) and
a compound related to Pfizer's hugely successful antiepileptic drug
gabapentin.
Neurontin (gabapentin)
In 2009, analysis of several published studies testing possible new uses for a
Pfizer Inc. epilepsy drug found that reporting of the results was often
misleading, indicating the medicine worked better than internal company
documents showed. When a company-funded study’s primary finding wasn’t
positive, that result was usually buried and something else positive was
highlighted, without disclosing the switch. The documents used in the
review were obtained by lawyers suing Pfizer for refunds on
prescriptions paid for by insurers and consumers. The lawyers, who are
seeking class action status for the cases, accuse Pfizer concealed
evidence the epilepsy drug Neurontin didn’t work for those unapproved
uses, including nerve pain, migraines and bipolar disorder.
Norvasc (amlodipine besylate)
Spiriva, marketed by Pfizer Inc and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceutical
Inc, may increase the risk of stroke. Known chemically as tiotropium,
Spiriva HandiHaler is used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,
or COPD, and is co-promoted worldwide by Pfizer and Boehringer Ingelheim,
a privately held German company.
Sutent (sunitinib malate) for advanced and/or metastatic renal cell
carcinoma (mRCC), a type of advanced kidney cancer, after failure of
interferon alfa and interleukin-2 therapies.
Viagra (sildenafil citrate) tablets
for sexual
enhancement. Viagra competes with
Levitra and Cialis.
Xalatan (latanoprost ophthalmic solution)
Zithromax (azithromycin)
Zoloft (sertraline HCI) is an
SSRI drug by Pfizer.
Zyrtec (certirizine HCI)
Pfizer drug for Dogs
Slentrol weight
loss pill for dog
Pfizer Consumer Health Care Products:
Benadryl
Cortizone
Desitin
e.p.t.
Listerine - Listerine is the No. 1 mouthwash from Pfizer Inc.. Pfizer
feels some pressure from Procter & Gamble Co.'s Crest Pro-Health
mouthwash, which came to the U.S. market in early 2005.
Lubriderm
Neosporin
Rolaids
Sudafed - Sudafed and similar cold medications are only available from
behind pharmacy counters because their active ingredient can be used to
make the street drug methamphetamine. However, in a peer-reviewed letter
to the editor of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical
Immunology, University of Florida researchers argued that there's little
evidence to suggest that the active ingredient in the new Sudafed PE or
similar medications will do anything to relieve a stuffy nose. But Pfizer,
the maker of Sudafed PE, stands by its product and says it's effective.
Under the USA Patriot Act, any drug containing pseudoephedrine must be
kept under lock and key. That means consumers won't be able to find the
drugs on store shelves; instead, they'll have to ask a store employee for
the drug, show identification, and sign a sales log. Some states, such as
Oregon, are adopting even tougher laws, requiring prescriptions for drugs
containing pseudoephedrine. If consumers want to avoid the hassle of
speaking to a pharmacist and signing a logbook to buy a nasal decongestant
like Sudafed or Claritin-D, they have other options. One of those options
is Sudafed PE, whose active ingredient -- phenylephrine -- can't be used
to make methamphetamine. Sudafed PE has been on the market since February
2005. But, phenylephrine may not be effective. Pfizer spokespeople say
phenylephrine works in pill form. There's actually little research
suggesting that any cold remedies are effective, including the ingredient
in the original Sudafed. None of the approved cold treatments is clearly
beneficial with benefits outweighing risks.
Visine
Pfizer Animal Testing Facilities
Kalamazoo, Michigan has become the primary site for animal testing that precedes any of Pfizer's human drug trials.
CEO
July 2006 - Pfizer named Jeffrey Kindler, the company's general counsel, to succeed Henry "Hank" McKinnell as CEO of the world's largest pharmaceutical company. Kindler became general counsel at Pfizer in 2002, and soon made the contentious decision to continue selling Celebrex, an arthritis drug which is in the same class as Merck's Vioxx, which has been withdrawn due to heart risks. Kindler, 51, previously served as chairman and CEO of Boston Market Corporation, and president of Partner Brands, both owned by McDonald's. He was general counsel at McDonald's from 1997 to 2001, according to Pfizer.
Pfizer Profit and company news
October 2006 - Pfizer, with the world's largest drugmaker did not
have a drop in in sales of cholesterol fighter Lipitor - the world's
top-selling prescription drug. Third-quarter sales of Lipitor rose 15
percent to $3.32 billion despite competition from cheaper generic forms of
Merck & Co.'s rival Zocor.
November 2006 - Pfizer, the world’s largest drug company, said it would lay off almost 2,500 sales representatives, or 20 percent of its American sales force and 2 percent of its total work force. The move may mark the beginning of a bigger retrenchment by Pfizer and the rest of the drug industry, which have sharply increased the size of their sales forces over the last decade, even as their research productivity has plunged.
December 2006 - Pfizer Inc. has cut off all clinical trials and development for a cholesterol drug that was supposed to be the star of its pipeline because of an unexpected number of deaths and cardiovascular problems in patients who used it. Pfizer said that an independent board monitoring a study for torcetrapib, a drug that raises levels of HDL, or what's commonly known as good cholesterol, recommended that the work end because of "an imbalance of mortality and cardiovascular events. The news is devastating to Pfizer, which had been counting on torcetrapib to revitalize stagnant sales that have been hurt by numerous patent expirations on key products.
January 2007 - Pfizer Inc. announced it will cut 10,000 jobs, as the world's largest drugmaker seeks to slash its annual costs by up to $2 billion by 2008 amid fierce competition from generic drugs. It's the second time in two years that Pfizer has announced a major cost reduction plan in order to combat the loss of about $14 billion in revenues this year due to expiring patents on key drugs. The company is at risk of losing 40 percent of its sales to generic competition between 2010 and 2012. The latest cuts, which amount to 10 percent of Pfizer's worldwide workforce, come on top of a previously announced plan to cut costs by $4 billion a year by 2008. The latest layoffs include the elimination of 2,200 jobs from the U.S. sales force, which Pfizer announced late last year. The company said Monday it would cut 20 percent of its European sales force but couldn't immediately say how many drug representatives it employed there. Analysts are skeptical that Pfizer's crop of current and pipeline products can generate enough sales to compensate for the lost revenue. Pressure on Pfizer has intensified since safety issues forced it to halt development of the star drug in its pipeline, which was slated to replace Pfizer's best-selling drug Lipitor as it loses patent protection as early as 2010. Meanwhile, U.S. sales of Lipitor, Pfizer's top selling drug, slipped 6 percent to $1.95 billion. Last summer, Zocor, a rival cholesterol treatment made by Merck & Co., lost patent protection and insurers have been pushing the cheaper versions of that drug over Lipitor when appropriate. This year, Pfizer will face generic competition on blood pressure medicine Norvasc, which brought in $4.9 billion in sales last year and allergy treatment Zyrtec, with $1.6 billion in revenue in 2006. Zoloft sales sank 79 percent to $166 million. In the United states, Zoloft sales plunged 88 percent to $76 million.
AIDS group will sue Pfizer
over Viagra ads
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), a major U.S. AIDS treatment group
has filed a lawsuit that accuses drug giant Pfizer Inc. of illegally
promoting recreational use of its blockbuster impotence pill Viagra. The
AIDS Healthcare Foundation wants Pfizer to be barred from marketing Viagra
as a lifestyle or sexual enhancement drug. The nonprofit organization said
Pfizer’s actions had led to risky behavior by men and an increase in HIV
and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Misleading drug information
regarding Neurontin, November 2009
Analysis of several published studies testing possible new uses for a
Pfizer Inc. epilepsy drug found that reporting of the results was often
misleading, indicating the medicine worked better than internal company
documents showed. When a company-funded study’s primary finding wasn’t
positive, that result was usually buried and something else positive was
highlighted, without disclosing the switch. The documents used in the
review were obtained by lawyers suing Pfizer for refunds on
prescriptions paid for by insurers and consumers. The lawyers, who are
seeking class action status for the cases, accuse Pfizer concealed
evidence the epilepsy drug Neurontin didn’t work for those unapproved
uses, including nerve pain, migraines and bipolar disorder.