Pfizer Inc is an American pharmaceutical conglomerate headquartered in New York City, with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut.
Pfizer is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. It's listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and its shares have been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 2004.
The company develops and manufactures medicines and vaccines for various medical disciplines, including immunology, oncology, cardiology, diabetes/endocrinology, and neurology. Its products include the Lipitor blockbuster drug (atorvastatin), used to lower LDL blood cholesterol; Lyrica (pregabalin) for neuropathic pain/fibromyalgia; Diflucan (fluconazole), oral antifungal drugs; Zithromax (azithromycin), antibiotics; Viagra (sildenafil) for erectile dysfunction; and Celebrex/Celebra (celecoxib), an anti-inflammatory drug.
In 2016, Pfizer Inc. is expected to join Allergan plc, in a deal worth $ 160 billion, to create Ireland-based "Pfizer plc". The merger was canceled in April 2016 because of new rules from the US Treasury against inversion, a method to avoid taxes by joining foreign companies. The Company has made the second largest pharmaceutical settlement with the US Department of Justice.
Video Pfizer
Histori
Pfizer was founded in 1849 by Charles Pfizer and Charles F. Erhart cousins ​​in New York City as the best chemicals producer. The discovery of Terramycin (oxytetracycline) in 1950 put him on the road to becoming a research-based pharmaceutical company. It has made many acquisitions, including Warner-Lambert in 2000, Pharmacia in 2003, and Wyeth in 2009 (the largest of the three at $ 68 billion).
19th century
Pfizer was named after the German-American Charles Pfizer who founded the company with his cousin Charles F. Erhart. Initially from Ludwigsburg, Germany, they launched the chemicals business, Charles Pfizer and Company, from a building at the intersection of Harrison Avenue and Bartlett Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 1849. There, they produced an antiparasit called santonin. This was a direct success, although the production of citric acid actually stimulated Pfizer's growth in the 1880s. Pfizer continues to buy properties to expand its labs and factories in blocks bordered by Bartlett Street; Harrison Avenue; Gerry Street; and Flushing Avenue. Pfizer's original administrative headquarters are at 81 Maiden Lane in Manhattan.
20th century
In 1906, sales reached $ 3.4 million.
World War I caused a lack of calcium citrate imported by Pfizer from Italy for the manufacture of citric acid, and the company began to look for alternative supplies. Pfizer chemists learned about the fungus that fermented sugars to citric acid and was able to commercialize the production of citric acid from this source in 1919. As a result, Pfizer developed expertise in fermentation technology. This skill was applied to the mass production of penicillin antibiotics during World War II in response to the needs of the US government to care for the wounded Allied army; most of the penicillin that went ashore with troops on D-Day was made by Pfizer.
In the 1940s, penicillin became very cheap. As a result, Pfizer is looking for new antibiotics with greater profit potential. Pfizer's discovery and commercialization of Terramycin (oxytetracycline) in 1950 transformed the company from a fine chemicals manufacturer to a research-based pharmaceutical company. To add to his research in fermentation technology, Pfizer developed a drug discovery program that focuses on in vitro synthesis. Pfizer also established an animal health division in 1959 with a farm and a research facility covering an area of ​​700 acres (2.8 km 2 ) in Terre Haute, Indiana.
In the 1950s, Pfizer had established offices in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom. In 1960, the company moved its media research laboratory operations from New York City to a new facility in Groton, Connecticut. In 1980 Pfizer launched Feldene (piroxicam), a prescription anti-inflammatory drug that became Pfizer's first product to reach one billion US dollars in total sales.
During the 1980s and 1990s, the growth of Pfizer Corporation was sustained by the discovery and marketing of Zoloft, Lipitor, Norvasc, Zithromax, Aricept, Diflucan, and Viagra.
2000-2010
In this decade, Pfizer grew up with mergers, including with Warner-Lambert (2000), Pharmacia (2003), and Wyeth (2009).
In 2003, the company acquired Esperion Therapeutics for $ 1.3 billion (then sold the unit in 2008), protecting Lipitor from ETC-216. In 2004, Pfizer announced it would acquire Meridica for $ 125 million. In 2005, the company made a number of acquisitions: Vicuron Pharmaceuticals worth $ 1.9 billion, Idun for just under $ 300 million and finally Angiosyn for $ 527 million.
On June 26, 2006, Pfizer announced it would sell Consumer Healthcare units (producers of Listerine, Nicorette, Visine, Sudafed and Neosporin) to Johnson & amp; Johnson for $ 16.6 billion.
The development of torcetrapib, a drug that increases HDL production, or "good cholesterol", which reduces LDL is considered to be correlated with heart disease, was canceled in December 2006. During phase III clinical trials involving 15,000 patients, more deaths occurred in the group taking the drug from is expected, and a sixty percent increase in mortality was seen among patients taking a combination of torcetrapib and Lipitor versus Lipitor alone. Lipitor himself was not involved in the results, but Pfizer lost nearly $ 1 billion developing a failed drug and the company's market value fell after that. The company also announced it will acquire Powermed and Rivax.
In September 2009, Pfizer pleaded guilty to the illegal marketing of Bextra arthritis drugs for use not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and approved a $ 2.3 billion completion, the largest health care fraud settlement at the time.
A July 2010 article in BusinessWeek reported that Pfizer saw more success in the battle against fake prescription drug makers by pursuing a civil lawsuit than a criminal prosecution. Pfizer has employed customs and narcotics experts from around the world to track counterfeit goods and gather evidence that could be used to pursue civil suits for trademark infringement. Since 2007, Pfizer has spent $ 3.3 million on investigations and legal fees and regained some $ 5.1 million, with another $ 5 million tied up in the ongoing case.
On May 6, 2013, Pfizer told The Associated Press that they would start selling Viagra directly to patients through its website.
Acquisition of Warner-Lambert
Pfizer acquired Warner-Lambert in 2000 for $ 111.8 billion, at the time, creating the second largest pharmaceutical company in the world. Warner-Lambert was founded as a Philadelphia drugstore in 1856 by William R. Warner. Creating a tablet coating process earns Warner a place at the Smithsonian Institution. Parke-Davis was founded in Detroit in 1866 by Hervey Parke and George Davis. Warner-Lambert took over Parke-Davis in 1976, and acquired Wilkinson Sword in 1993 and Agouron Pharmaceuticals in 1999.
Pharmaceutical acquisition
In 2002, Pfizer joined Pharmacia. The merger was driven in part by the desire to acquire full rights to a product, this time Celebrex (celecoxib), a selective COX-2 inhibitor previously marketed by Searle (acquired by Pharmacia) and Pfizer. In subsequent years, Pfizer undertook a massive restructuring that resulted in much site closure and job loss including Terre Haute, Indiana; Holland, Michigan; Groton, Connecticut; Brooklyn, New York; Sandwiches, English; and Puerto Rico.
Pharmacia has been formed by a series of mergers and acquisitions from its predecessors, including Searle, Upjohn, and SUGEN.
Searle was founded in Omaha, Nebraska, in April 1888. Its founder was Gideon Daniel Searle. In 1908, the company was founded in Chicago, Illinois. In 1941, the company set up its headquarters in Skokie, Illinois. It was acquired by the Monsanto Company, headquartered in St. Petersburg. Louis, Missouri, in 1985.
The Upjohn Company is a pharmaceutical manufacturing company founded in 1886 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. William E. Upjohn, an 1875 graduate from the University of Michigan medical school. The company was originally set up to make easy-to-break pills, specifically designed for easy digestion. Greenstone was founded in 1993 by Upjohn as a generic division. In 1995, Upjohn joined Pharmacia, to form Pharmacia & amp; Upjohn. Pharmacia was created in April 2000 through the merger of Pharmacia & amp; Upjohn with Monsanto Company and GD unit. His Searle. The combined company is based in Peapack, New Jersey. The agricultural division was separated from Pharmacia, as Monsanto, in preparation for the closing of the acquisition by Pfizer.
SUGEN, a company that focuses on protein kinase inhibitors, was founded in 1991 in Redwood City, California, and was acquired by Pharmacia in 1999. The company pioneered the use of small molecules of ATP-mimetics to block signal transduction. After the merger of Pfizer, the site SUGEN closed in 2003, with the loss of more than 300 jobs, and some programs transferred to Pfizer. These include sunitinib (Sutent), approved for human use by the FDA in January 2006, issuing $ 1 billion of annual revenue to Pfizer in 2010. Related compounds, SU11654 (Toceranib), also approved for cancine tumors, and ALK Crizotinib inhibitors as well grew out of the SUGEN program.
In 2003, Pfizer just made Greenstone (originally founded as a division of Upjohn) its generic division, and its focus shifted to the sale of Pfizer's official medicines.
In 2008, Pfizer announced 275 layoffs at its Kalamazoo manufacturing facility. Kalamazoo was formerly the world headquarters for Upjohn Company.
Wyeth Procurement
On January 26, 2009, after more than a year of talks between the two companies, Pfizer agreed to buy drugs to rival Wyeth for a combined $ 68 billion in cash, stocks and loans, including some US $ 22.5 billion loaned by the top five Wall Street banks. The agreement strengthens Pfizer's position as the world's largest pharmaceutical company, with the combined company generating over US $ 20 billion in cash each year, and is the largest merger of companies since AT & amp; T and BellSouth for US $ 70 billion in March 2006. The combined company is expected to save US $ 4 billion per year through downsizing; however, as part of the deal, both companies must repatriate billions of dollars in revenue from foreign sources to the United States, which will result in higher tax costs. The acquisition was completed on October 15, 2009, making Wyeth a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer.
The merger was widely criticized. Gary Pisano from Harvard Business School told The Wall Street Journal, "Big mergers and acquisitions in Big Pharma have not been good, but there's a whole bunch of shareholder wealth destroyed." Analysts said at the time, "The Warner-Lambert and Pharmacia mergers do not seem to reach profits for shareholders, so it's not clear who benefits from the Wyeth-Pfizer merger to much criticism."
Acquisition of King Pharmaceuticals
In October 2010, Pfizer agreed to buy King Pharmaceuticals for $ 3.6 billion in cash or $ 14.25 per share: about 40% premium over the closing price of King's shares October 11, 2010.
2011-present
In February 2011, it was announced that Pfizer would close its research and development facility in the UK (formerly also a manufacturing plant) in Sandwich, Kent, which employed 2,400 people at the time. However, by 2014, Pfizer has a reduced presence on the site; it also has a UK research unit at Cambridge.
On September 4, 2012, the FDA approved Pfizer pills for rare types of leukemia. The drug, called Bosulif, treats chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), blood and bone marrow disease that usually affects older adults.
In July 2014, the company announced it would acquire Innopharma for $ 225 million, plus up to $ 135 million in milestone payouts, in an agreement that expands the reach of Pfizer's generic and injectable drugs.
On January 5, 2015, the company announced it would acquire a controlling stake in Redvax for an undisclosed amount. This agreement expands the vaccine portfolio of companies targeting human cytomegalovirus. In March 2015, the company announced it would restart its collaboration with Eli Lilly who toured Tanezumab's phase III trials. Pfizer is expected to receive an initial amount of $ 200 million. In June 2015, the company acquired two meningitis medications from GlaxoSmithKline - Nimenrix and Mencevax - about $ 130 million, expanding its portfolio of meningococcal drug companies.
In May 2016, the company announced it would acquire Anacor Pharmaceuticals for $ 5.2 billion, expanding its portfolio of companies in both the field of inflammatory and immunological medicine. On their last trading day, Anacor shares traded at $ 99.20 each, giving Anacor a market capitalization of $ 4.5 billion. In August, the company made a $ 40 million bid for the now-bankrupt BIND Therapeutics asset through the US Bankruptcy Court. In the same month, the company announced it would acquire Bamboo Therapeutics for $ 645 million, extending the company's gene therapy offering. Then, in August, the company announced the acquisition of the drug maker Medivation - for $ 14 billion. On the last day of Medivation trading, each share was worth $ 81.44, providing an effective market capitalization of $ 13.52 billion. Two days later, Pfizer announced it would acquire a small $ 1.575 billion AstraZenecas small-molecular antibiotic business that incorporated it into the Essential Medicines business. That same month, the company licensed the anti-CTLA4 monoclonal antibody, ONC-392, from OncoImmune.
Zoetis
Plans to spew Zoetis, Pfizer Agriculture Division and Pfizer Animal Health, announced in 2012. Pfizer filed Class A stock registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 13, 2012. The Zoetis IPO on February 1, 2013, sold 86.1 million shares worth 2.2 billion US dollars. Pfizer retained 414 million Class B shares, giving it an 83% controlling stake in the company. The main guarantor on offer is JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley. Most of the money collected through an IPO is used to repay Pfizer's existing debt.
Trying to acquire AstraZeneca
In April 2014, it was reported that Pfizer had revived a $ 100 billion takeover bid for AstraZeneca based in Britain, sparking political controversy in Britain, as well as in the US. On May 19, 2014, the "final offer" of £ 55 per sheet was rejected by the board of AstraZeneca, which said that the offer was too low and too much risk. If successful, the takeover - the largest in British history - will make Pfizer the world's largest drug company. Hope for a new offer later in the year broke up when Pfizer signed a major cancer drug deal with Merck KGaA, selling the rights of sharing to develop an experimental immunotherapy drug at a cost of $ 850 million.
Hospira
In February 2015, Pfizer and Hospira agreed that Pfizer would acquire Hospira for $ 15.2 billion, an agreement in which Hospira shareholders would receive $ 90 cash for each share they own. News of the deal sent Hospira share prices up from $ 63.43 to $ 87.43 on volume of 60.7 million shares. Including debt, the deal is worth about $ 17 billion. Hospira is the world's largest manufacturer of generic injecting drugs. On the last day of trading, Hospira's stock traded $ 89.96 each, giving the market capitalization $ 15.56 billion.
Allergan's acquisition experiment
On November 23, 2015, Pfizer and Allergan, Plc announced their intention to join the estimated total of $ 160 billion, making it the largest ever pharmaceutical deal, and the third largest merger in history. As part of the deal, Pfizer CEO Ian Read will remain the CEO and chairman of the new company, to be called "Pfizer plc", with Allergan CEO Brent Saunders, president and chief operating officer. As part of the deal, Allergan shareholders will receive 11.3 shares of the company, with Pfizer shareholders receiving one. The proposed requirement that the merged company will retain the Allergan's Irish domicile, so the new company is taxed at an Irish rate of 12.5% ​​- much lower than the 35% rate paid by Pfizer at the time. The deal was a reverse merger, in which Allergan acquired Pfizer, with the new company then changed its name to "Pfizer, plc". The deal is expected to be completed in the second half of 2016, depending on certain conditions: US and EU approvals, approvals from both sets of shareholders, and completion of Allergan divestment from its generic division to Teva Pharmaceuticals (expected in the first quarter) of 2016). On April 6, 2016, Pfizer and Allergan announced that they would cancel the merger after the Obama administration introduced a new law intended to limit the company's tax inversion (the extent to which companies can move their headquarters abroad to reduce the amount of taxes they pay).
Pfizer Consumer Healthcare
In October 2017, reports emerged that Pfizer was conducting a strategic review of its Consumer Healthcare division, with possible outcomes ranging from partial or complete spin-offs or direct sales to divestment expected to increase in the $ 15 billion region for one of the Over- the-largest Counter in the world. Reckitt Benckiser expressed interest in bidding for the division earlier in October with Sanofi, Johnson & amp; Johnson, Procter & amp; Gamble and GlaxoSmithKline are also associated with bids for businesses. On March 22, Reckitt Benckiser withdrew from the deal, a day later GlaxoSmithKline was also pulled out.
Acquisition history
The full list of Pfizers subsidiaries' ownership can be found here
Maps Pfizer
Operation
Pfizer is organized into nine major operating sections: Primary Care, Special Care, Oncology, Emerging Markets, Established Products, Consumer Health, Nutrition, Animal Health, and Capsugel.
Partnership
In May 2015, Pfizer and the University of Bar-Ilan laboratory announced a partnership based on the development of medical DNA nano technology.
Research and development
Pfizer's research and development activities are organized into two main groups: PharmaTherapeutics & amp; Development Group, which focuses on the discovery of small molecules and related modalities; and BioTherapeutics Research & amp; Development Group, which focuses on large-molecule research, including vaccines. In 2007, Pfizer invested $ 8.1 billion in research and development, the largest R & D investment in the pharmaceutical industry.
Pfizer has R & D facilities in the following locations:
- Pearl River, New York
- Groton, Connecticut
- La Jolla, California (about 1,000 staff, focusing on cancer drugs);
- South San Francisco, California
- Cambridge, Massachusetts
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Sandwich, United Kingdom
- Cambridge, United Kingdom.
In 2007, Pfizer announced plans to close or sell the Loughbeg API facility, located in Loughbeg, Ringaskiddy, Cork, Ireland in mid to late 2008. In 2007, Pfizer announced plans to fully close Ann Arbor, Nagoya and Amboise facilities by the end of 2008, eliminating 2,160 Michigan jobs and idling facilities worth $ 300 million, which in recent years has seen millions of dollars in expansion.
On June 18, 2007, Pfizer announced it would move its Animal Health Research (VMRD) division based in Sandwich, England, to Kalamazoo, Michigan. On February 1, 2011, Pfizer announced the closing of the Research and Development center in Sandwich, with the loss of 2,400 jobs. Pfizer then announced it will maintain a significant presence in Sandwich, with approximately 650 on-site location-based staff.
On September 1, 2011, Pfizer announced it had agreed to lease 10 years of more than 180,000 square feet of research space from MIT in a building to be built north of the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This space will accommodate the Cardiovascular Unit, Metabolism and Endocrine Diseases of Pfizer and its Neurosciences Research Unit; Pfizer anticipates moving to space after completion at the end of 2013.
In 2013, products in the Pfizer development pipeline include dimebon and tanezumab.
In 2018, Pfizer announces that it will end its research on treatments for Alzheimer's disease and Parkinsonism (symptoms of Parkinson's disease and other conditions). The company claims that about 300 researchers will lose their jobs as a result.
Management
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and current Board Chairman are Ian Read.
Products
Pharmaceutical products
Recent and historical Pfizer products include:
- Atorvastatin (trade name Lipitor), statin for the treatment of hypercholesterolaemia. Lipitor was developed by the heir company Pfizer Warner-Lambert and was first marketed in 1996. Although atorvastatin is the fifth drug in statin classes to be developed, clinical trials show that atorvastatin causes a more dramatic reduction in LDL-C than other statin drugs.. From 1996 to 2012 under the trade name Lipitor, atorvastatin became the world's best-selling drug of all time, with more than $ 125 billion in sales for about 14.5 years. Lipitor itself "provides up to a quarter of Pfizer Inc.'s annual revenue over the years."
- Prevnar (13-valent conjugate pneumococcal vaccine) is a vaccine for the prevention of invasive pneumococcal infection. The introduction of the original 7-valent vaccine version in 1999 led to a 75% reduction in the incidence of invasive pneumococcal infections among children under 5 years of age in the United States. An improved version of the vaccine, providing coverage of 13 bacterial variants, was introduced in early 2010. By 2012 the rate of invasive infections among children under 5 years has been reduced by an additional 50%.
- Norvasc (amlodipine), an antihypertensive drug from a block class of dihydropyridine calcium channel. Amlodipine is listed in the World Health Organization's Essential Drug List, a list of the most important drugs needed in basic healthcare systems.
- Diflucan (fluconazole), the first treatment available orally for severe fungal infections. Fluconazole is recommended as first-line treatment in invasive candidiasis and is widely used in the prophylaxis of severe fungal infections in premature infants. Fluconazole is listed in the World Health Organization's Essential Medicines List.
- Zithromax (azithromycin), a macrolide antibiotic recommended by the Infectious Disease Society of America as first-line treatment for certain cases of community-acquired pneumonia.
- Flagyl (metronidazole) is a nitroimidazole antibiotic drug used primarily for anaerobic and protozoan bacteria. It is antibacterial to anaerobic, amoebicide, and antiprotozoal organisms. This is the drug of choice for the first episode of mild to moderate Clostridium difficile infection. It's in the List of Essential Medicines of the World Health Organization.
- Zoloft (sertraline), is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class. It was introduced to the market by Pfizer in 1991. Sertraline is primarily prescribed for major depressive disorders in adult outpatients as well as obsessive-compulsive, panic, and social anxiety disorders in adults and children. In 2011, it was the most widely prescribed antidepressant in the US retail market, with 37 million recipes.
- Lyrica (pregabalin) for neuropathic pain. Lyrica sales reached $ 4.6 billion in 2013; US patents in Lyrica are challenged by generic manufacturers and enforced in 2014, providing Pfizer exclusivity for Lyrica in the US until 2018.
In addition to marketing of branded drugs, Pfizer is involved in the manufacture and sale of generics. In the US, this is done through a subsidiary of Greenstone, acquired as part of the Pharmacia acquisition. Pfizer also has an on-premises licensing deal with Aurobindo, which provides former access to a variety of oral generic products.
Promotional practices
Access to Wyeth's internal documents has revealed the marketing strategy used to promote Neurontin for off-label use. In 1993, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved gabapentin (Neurontin, Pfizer) only for the treatment of seizures. Warner-Lambert, who joined Pfizer in 2000, used activities normally unrelated to sales promotion, including continuing education and medical research, drug-sponsored articles for medical literature, and alleged repression of unfavorable study results, to promote gabapentin. Within 5 years, the drug is widely used for the treatment of illness and psychiatric conditions that do not fit the label. Warner-Lambert claims to have alleged that it violates FDA regulations by promoting drugs for pain, psychiatric conditions, migraines and other unapproved uses, and pay $ 430 million to settle the costs of criminal and civil health care responsibilities. A Cochrane review recently concluded that gabapentin is not effective in migraine prophylaxis. The American Academy of Neurology rate it has unproven efficacy, while the Canadian Headache Society and the European Society's Neurological Federation assess its use supported by moderate and low-quality evidence, respectively.
In September 2009, Pfizer agreed to pay $ 2.3 billion to settle civil and criminal allegations that he had illegally marketed four drugs - Bextra, Geodon, Zyvox, and Lyrica - for unapproved uses; it is the fourth settlement of Pfizer in a decade. Payments include $ 1.3 billion in criminal penalties for violations of Food, Drug and Cosmetics Law crimes, and $ 1 billion to settle allegations that it illegally promotes drugs for use that are not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and cause false claims to be submitted to Federal and State programs. The criminal fine is the largest ever rated in the United States until then. Pfizer has entered into extensive corporate integrity agreements with the Office of the Inspector General and will be required to make substantial structural reforms within the company, and maintain the Pfizer website (www.pfizer.com/pmc) to track post-company marketing commitments. Pfizer must also enter a searchable database of all payments to doctors who have been created by the company on the Pfizer website before March 31, 2010.
Peter Rost was vice president in charge of the endocrinology division at Pharmacia before and during the acquisition by Pfizer. During that time he raised his internal concerns about bribery and marketing without the label of Genotropin, Pharmacia's human growth hormone drug. Pfizer reports Pharmacia marketing practices to the FDA and the Department of Justice; Rost was unaware of this and filed an FCA suit against Pfizer. Pfizer arrested him, but alienated him until the FCA suit was sealed in 2005. The Justice Department refused to intervene, and Pfizer fired him, and he filed a wrongful dismissal against Pfizer. Pfizer won a summary of the dismissal of the case, with a court ruling that evidence indicates Pfizer had decided to fire Rost before studying the fact-finding activity.
A "whistleblower suit" was filed in 2005 against Wyeth, acquired by Pfizer in 2009, stating that the company illegally marketed their Rapamune drug. Wyeth became a target in a lawsuit for off-label marketing, targeting doctors and certain medical facilities to increase sales of Rapamune, trying to get current transplant patients to change from their current transplant drug to Rapamune and specifically target African-Americans. According to whistleblowers, Wyeth also provides doctors and hospitals with bribes to prescribe drugs in the form of grants, donations, and other money. In 2013, the company pleaded guilty to violations of criminal mis-branding under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Until August 2014, they have paid $ 491 million in civil and criminal penalties.
According to publisher John MacArthur's Harper's Magazine, Pfizer pulled "between $ 400,000 and a million dollars" from ads from their magazine after an unattractive article on depression medication.
Litigation
Pfizer is a party to a number of lawsuits derived from pharmaceutical products as well as practices of various companies that have joined or obtained.
Quigley_Co.> Quigley Co.
Pfizer acquired Quigley in 1968, and the division sold insulation products containing asbestos until the early 1970s. Asbestos victims and Pfizer have negotiated a settlement deal asking Pfizer to pay $ 430 million to 80 percent of the plaintiffs. It will also place an additional $ 535 million into the trust of asbestos settlement that will compensate the plaintiffs in the future as well as the remaining 20 percent of the current plaintiffs with claims against Pfizer and Quigley. The compensation deal is worth $ 965 million all. Of the $ 535 million, $ 405 million is in the 40-year record of Pfizer, while $ 100 million will come from an insurance policy.
Bjork-Shiley heart valve
Pfizer bought Shiley in 1979 during the Convexo-Concave valve attack, involving the Bjork-Shiley heart valve. About 500 people died when damaged valves failed and, in 1994, the United States decided against Pfizer for ~ $ 200 million.
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In 1996, outbreaks of measles, cholera, and bacterial meningitis occurred in Nigeria. Pfizer's representative traveled to Kano, Nigeria to manage experimental antibiotics, trovafloxacin, to about 200 children. The local canoe official reported that more than 50 children died in the experiment, while many others developed mental and physical disabilities. The nature and frequency of both death and other adverse outcomes are similar to those historically found among pediatric patients treated for meningitis in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2001, the families of children, as well as the Kano and Nigerian governments, filed a lawsuit related to care. According to the news program Democracy Now! , "[r] the esearcher did not get a signed consent form, and medical personnel said Pfizer did not tell parents that their children were getting experimental drugs." The lawsuit also accused Pfizer of using outbreaks to conduct unapproved human tests, as well as allegedly under control group doses treated with traditional antibiotics to cheat out the trial proceedings that support Trovan. While the specific facts of the case are still debated, both Nigerian medical personnel and at least one Pfizer doctor have stated that trials are conducted without regulatory approval.
In 2007, Pfizer issued a Declaration of Defense. The letter states that the oral form of the drug is safer and easier to manage, that Trovan has been used safely in more than 5000 Americans before a trial in Nigeria, that mortality in patients treated by Pfizer is lower than that historically observed in the epidemic African meningitis, and no unusual side effects, unrelated to meningitis, were observed after 4 weeks.
In June 2010, the US Supreme Court rejected Pfizer's appeal against a verdict allowing a lawsuit by the Nigerian family to proceed.
In December 2010, WikiLeaks released a US diplomatic cable, which showed that Pfizer had hired investigators to find evidence of corruption against Nigerian prosecutor Aondoakaa to persuade him to cancel legal action. Washington Post reporter Joe Stephens, who helped solve the story in 2000, called this action "almost approaching extortion." In response, the company has released a press statement describing the allegations as "unreasonable" and declaring that they are acting in good faith. Aondoakka, who allegedly demanded a bribe from Pfizer in exchange for the settlement of the case, was declared unfit for his post and his US visa was revoked in connection with corruption allegations in 2010.
Retroviruses Requirements
A scientist claims he is infected by a genetically modified virus when working for Pfizer. In a civil suit, he says he has been paralyzed by a virus designed by Pfizer. "McClain, of the Deep River, suspects he was inadvertently exposed, through work by his former Pfizer colleagues in 2002 or 2003, to an engineering form of lentivirus, a virus similar to that which can cause immune deficiency syndrome, also known as AIDS." that McClain failed to show that his illness was caused by exposure to lentivirus, but also that Pfizer broke the whistleblower law.
Blue Cross Blue Shield
Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) health insurance company filed a lawsuit against Pfizer for reportedly marketing their drug illegally, Bextra, Geodon, and Lyrica. BCBS reports that Pfizer used "bribes" and wrongly persuaded doctors to prescribe drugs. FiercePharma reported that "According to the lawsuit, the drug manufacturer not only distributed" misleading "materials to non-labeling uses, but sent doctors to Caribbean parties and paid them $ 2,000 in exchange for listening to their talks on Bextra More than 5,000 Healthcare professionals were entertained at meetings in the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, and throughout the US, the lawsuit alleges. "The case was finalized in 2014 for $ 325 million.
Brigham Young University
Controversy arose over the drug "Celebrex". Brigham Young University (BYU) said that a chemistry professor, Dr. Daniel L. Simmons, discovered an enzyme in the 1990s that would later lead to the development of Celebrex. BYU initially seeks 15% of sales royalties, which would be equivalent to $ 9.7 billion. Court filings indicate that a research agreement was made with Monsanto, whose pharmaceutical business was later acquired by Pfizer, to develop better aspirin. The enzyme that Dr. Simmons claims to have found will cause pain and inflammation while causing digestive problems, which Celebrex is used to alleviate the problem. The battle took place, lasting for six years, because BYU claimed that Pfizer did not give him credit or compensation, while Pfizer claimed to have fulfilled all the obligations under the Monsanto agreement. This culminated in a $ 450 million peace settlement without having to go to court. Pfizer said it would take a $ 450 million fee against first-quarter earnings to settle.
Litigation where Pfizer is not a party
Pfizer is discussed as part of Kelo v. New London was decided by the US Supreme Court in 2005. In February 1998 Pfzer announced it would build research facilities in New London, Connecticut, and local planners, hoping to promote economic development and build the entry of the planned facility work to bring it to the city, which includes seize property to redevelop under a leading domain, and locals are sued to stop seizures. The case was brought to the Supreme Court, and in relation to Pfizer, the court cited a previous decision which stated: "The record clearly indicates that the development plan is not intended to serve the interests of Pfizer, Inc., or other private entities, but rather to revitalize the local economy by creating temporary and permanent jobs, resulting in a significant increase in tax revenues, encouraging spin-off economic activity and maximizing public access to the waterfront ". The Supreme Court allows leading domains to continue. Pfizer opened the facility in 2001 but left it in 2009, angering the city's inhabitants.
Environmental recordings
Between 2002 and 2008, Pfizer reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, and committed to reducing emissions by an additional 20% by 2012. In 2012 the company was named Carbon Leadership Index from the Carbon Disclosure Project in recognition of its efforts to reduce gas glass emissions.
Pfizer has inherited Wyeth's responsibility at the American Cyanamid site in Bridgewater, New Jersey. The site is very toxic and the EPA states the Superfund site. Pfizer has since sought to recover this land to clean and expand it for future benefits and potential for public use. The Sierra Club and Edison Wetlands Association have opposed the cleanup plan, arguing that the area was hit by floods, which could cause pollution to evaporate. The EPA considers the plan most plausible of safety considerations and cost-effectiveness, arguing that alternative plans involving contaminated soil trucks from the site could expose cleaning workers. The EPA position is supported by the CRISIS environmental watchdog group.
In June 2002, the chemical explosion at the Groton plant injured seven people and caused the evacuation of more than 100 homes in the surrounding area.
Politics lobby
Pfizer is a prominent member of the US Global Leadership Coalition, a coalition based in Washington D.C. more than 400 large companies and NGOs advocating for a larger International Budget of Relation, funding US diplomatic, humanitarian and development efforts abroad.
Pfizer is one of the biggest single lobbying interests in US politics. For example, in the first 9 months of 2009, Pfizer spent more than $ 16.3 million lobbying US Congressional lawmakers, making them the sixth largest lobbying interest in the US (following Pharmaceutical Research and American Manufacturers (PhRMA), which ranks fourth but also represent many of their interests). A Pfizer spokeswoman said the company "wants to make sure our voices are heard in this conversation" in terms of corporate spending of $ 25 million in 2010 to lobby for health care reform.
According to State Department cables released by WikiLeaks whistleblower website, Pfizer "lobbied New Zealand to get a free trade agreement with the United States for objecting to New Zealand's strict drug purchase rules and trying to get rid of former New Zealand health minister Helen Clark in 1990.
Employment and diversity
Since 2004, Pfizer has received a 100% annual rating on the Corporate Equality Index, released by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
In 2012, the Canadian division of Pfizer, which then employs 2,890 people, was named the 15 Best Entrepreneurs in Montreal, the only research-based pharmaceutical company to receive this honor.
Engagement in the development of world health issues
Pfizer makes fluconazole an anti-fungal drug available for free for government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in developing countries with an HIV/AIDS prevalence of more than 1%. The Company has also pledged to provide up to 740 million doses of anti-pneumococcal vaccine at discounted prices for infants and children in 41 developing countries in association with the GAVI Alliance.
In 2012, Pfizer and Gates Foundation announced a joint effort to provide affordable access to injectable contraceptive drugs, long-lasting acetal medroksyprogesterone, to three million women in developing countries.
See also
- Biotech and pharmaceutical companies in the New York metropolitan area
- List of pharmaceutical companies
- Companies in the United States with untaxed profit
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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