Pfizer was founded in Brooklyn, New York by two immigrant cousins, Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart, who shared a dream of setting up a chemical manufacturing business. Little did they know the company they founded would go on to play a major role in addressing some of society’s most devastating illnesses.
Pfizer is proud to have played a role in developing and manufacturing some of the most important medical innovations of the past 170 years. From our role in advancing manufacturing capabilities to produce large quantities of penicillin needed to protect soldiers on the battlefield during World War II to developing the breakthrough vaccines that have helped eradicate devastating infectious diseases to creating a breakthrough breast cancer therapy that has given more than 350,000 women additional, high-quality years of life, Pfizer’s products have changed the lives of billions of people around the world and made what was once unimaginable imaginable.