Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, is under pressure after a study linked its popular arthritis drug Celebrex to elevated heart attack risk. The drug had generated nearly $2.3 billion in sales through the first nine months of 2004 and was used by roughly 26 million patients.
Founded in 1849 in a small New York factory, the company initially made an anti-parasitic compound before shifting to citric acid production. By 1910 annual sales reached $3 million; by 2003 they had climbed to $45.2 billion, yielding profits of approximately $3.91 billion.
Pfizer's single best-performing product is Lipitor, an anti-cholesterol medication whose $7.6 billion in sales during the first three quarters of 2004 made it the top-selling prescription drug worldwide. Viagra, its well-known erectile dysfunction treatment, faces growing rivalry from Levitra and Cialis.
The company holds several drugs each exceeding $1 billion in annual sales and ranks among the largest producers of veterinary pharmaceuticals. Its scale reflects two major acquisitions: the $90 billion purchase of Warner-Lambert in 2000 and the $60 billion takeover of Sweden's Pharmacia two years later. Pfizer currently employs about 122,000 people and had budgeted $7.5 billion for research and development in 2004.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in December 2004, in its own words.