Pfizer, Inc.  Pfizer's history is one of innovation and adventure, of
risks taken and bold decisions made. It is the story of people dedicated
to building a great Company with a noble purpose - helping people live
longer, healthier lives. for other industry players launching innovative
medicines, Pfizer is, according to Business Week, "poised to become the
new drug-industry leader." "AT PFIZER, WE HAVE A TRADITION OF CONQUERING
UNCHARTED TERRITORY. As a team, Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart fostered
a pioneering spirit that has endured at their Company for over 150 years.

Cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart emigrated from Ludwigsburg,
Germany, in the mid-1840s. In Germany, Charles Pfizer had learned
chemistry as an apothecary's apprentice, while Erhart became a
confectioner - a trade he learned from his uncle, Carl Frederick
Pfizer. In America, the cousins united their skills and in 1849 founded
a chemical firm, Charles Pfizer & Company. The Company began operations
in the Williamsburg community of Brooklyn, New York.

They decided to make santonin - a treatment for parasitic worms that
was effective but intensely bitter - more palatable by blending it with
almond-toffee flavoring and shaping it into a candy cone. The product
was an immediate success. Industrialization, transportation systems,
technology, and medical advances opened up a world of opportunity. Pfizer
and Erhart were not ones to sit back and let the world change without
them. When the raw material supply needed to make citric acid, Pfizer's
most important product, dried up during World War I, the Company had
two options: close its doors or find another way to get the job done.

For decades, citric acid was Pfizer's most popular product. When World
War I erupted in 1914, the Italian imports stopped altogether and Pfizer
pursued other supply sources.

A new era dawned in 1917, when Dr. James Currie joined Pfizer. As
a government food chemist, Currie had been studying fermentation in
cheese-making and discovered that one of the by-products was citric
acid. At Pfizer, Currie and an assistant, Jasper Kane, worked in extreme
secrecy. The Company gambled on the process, taking a calculated risk
in turning over its still-profitable borax and boric acid production
facilities to SUCIAC. In time, SUCIAC production began to outperform
conventional extraction from citrus products, and by 1929 Pfizer no longer
needed any imported citrus product at all. Finally, in 1928, Dr. Alexander
Fleming's discovery of penicillin signaled the dawn of modern medicine and
offered real hope in the battle against infection. Armed with increasing
evidence of the remarkable powers of penicillin, but unable to engage
British companies due to the country's involvement in World War II,
the Oxford scientists sought help in America.

In 1941, Pfizer's John Davenport and Gordon Cragwall attended a symposium
at which researchers from Columbia University, building on the work
of British scientists, presented clear data that penicillin could
effectively treat infections. Inspired by the possibilities, the two
men offered Pfizer's assistance. That same year, Pfizer was among the
companies responding to a government appeal to join a high-stakes race to
see which company would develop a way to mass-produce the world's first
"wonder drug."

Beginning with fermentation experiments conducted with the team at
Columbia University, Pfizer would take enormous risks over the next three
years in devoting its energies to penicillin production. In the fall
of 1942, Pfizer scientist Jasper Kane suggested a radically different
approach, proposing that the Company attempt to produce penicillin using
the same deep-tank fermentation methods perfected with citric acid. This
was tremendously risky because it would require Pfizer to curtail the
production of citric acid and other well-established products while it
focused on the development of penicillin. In a small room in the Brooklyn
plant, Pfizer's senior management met to weigh the options - and took
the leap. Pfizer purchased a nearby vacant ice plant, and employees
worked around the clock to convert it and perfect the complex production
process. The plant was up and running in just four months, and soon Pfizer
was producing five times more penicillin than originally anticipated.

Recognizing the superiority of the Pfizer process and desperate
for massive quantities of penicillin to aid in the war effort, the
U.S. government authorized 19 companies to produce the antibiotic
using the Company's deep-tank fermentation techniques, which Pfizer had
agreed to share with its competitors. Despite their access to Pfizer's
technology, none of these companies could come close to Pfizer's
production levels and quality. Indeed, Pfizer produced 90 percent of
the penicillin that went ashore with Allied forces at Normandy on D-Day
in 1944 and more than half of all the penicillin used by the Allies for
the rest of the war, helping to save countless lives.

The race to mass-produce penicillin was over. Pfizer had emerged
victorious, but the real winners were the millions of people who were
to benefit from the wonder drug. Penicillin was a turning point in human
history - the first real defense against bacterial infection.

John Smith, Pfizer President and Chairman of the Board, faced a
particularly difficult dilemma when Dr. Leo Loewe of nearby Brooklyn
Jewish Hospital pleaded with him for penicillin to treat a young girl
who was dying of subacute bacterial endocarditis. Loewe received his
penicillin.

Although penicillin was not thought to be an effective treatment for
subacute bacterial endocarditis, Loewe's intravenous drip worked, and the
little girl recovered. Smith continued to supply Loewe with penicillin
until he was ordered by the government to ship all penicillin supplies
directly to the military. But that order didn't stop people from getting
sick, and Loewe continued to ask Smith for life-saving penicillin. Smith
soon discovered a solution. The Company was allowed eight million units
of penicillin each month for its own uses, presumably research. Smith
shipped much of this to Loewe.

Recognizing that penicillin was only the beginning of an era of
medical breakthroughs in which Pfizer could play a major role, the
Company's scientists began an intensive quest to find new organisms
to fight disease. Emerging theories suggested that bacteria-fighting
organisms would be found in soil, so the Company launched a worldwide soil
collection and testing program. Pfizer solicited and received 135,000 soil
samples and conducted more than 20 million tests. Pfizer eventually hit
"pay dirt," finding a substance that proved effective against a wide range
of deadly bacteria. It became the first product ever to be discovered and
developed exclusively by Pfizer scientists and was named Terramycin®,
because it came from the earth (terra, in Latin). One week before the
patent was issued, Pfizer CEO John Smith died. Pfizer's management
met and agreed to "put it on the line." They honored Smith's wishes. A
formidable new pharmaceutical company had been born.

Since Pfizer's penicillin production breakthrough more than 50 years ago,
the Company has played a leading role in the discovery, development,
and marketing of anti-infective medicine. In December 1997, the Company
received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for Trovan®,
the latest entry in a proud tradition of innovative Pfizer products
that includes Terramycin®, Geopen®, Cefobid®, Sulperazon®, Unasyn®,
Vibramycin®, Diflucan®, and Zithromax®.

Courtesy: Pfizer, Inc.