Pfizer
The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated conversations over the past two years, so it’s no surprise that a major player in this area would take the category by storm. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first COVID-19 vaccine to be approved for emergency use and it has seen huge success.
The company was founded in 1849 in New York by Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart. At first, the company was a manufacturer of fine chemicals but pivoted to more research-based pharmaceuticals in the 1950s. Over the years, the company has had countless success stories, including Lipitor – touted as the biggest selling drug of all time. Another famous success story for the company is Viagra; while the drug was undergoing clinical trials for treating heart disease, scientists realized that it was not sufficiently efficacious – but also noted that it did have an unusual side effect…
As of February 2022, the company had 27 product candidates in phase I, 25 in phase II, and 27 in phase III.
Key facts
Global headquarters: New York, USA
Number of employees: 79,000
Sales Revenue in 2021: US$81.3 billion
Recent news:
Pfizer acquires ReViral and its portfolio of respiratory syncytial virus therapeutic candidates
David M Denton named company’s Chief Financial Officer
Honorable mention: Merck, Sharp & Dohme
