Pfizer Incorporated (NYSE: PFE) (nice Fee)is a pharmaceutical company, ranking number one in sales in the world. The company is based in New York City, with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut. It produces Lipitor (atorvastatin, used to lower blood cholesterol); the neuropathic pain/fibromyalgia drug Lyrica (pregabalin); the oral antifungal medication Diflucan (fluconazole), the antibiotic Zithromax (azithromycin), Viagra (sildenafil) for erectile dysfunction, and the anti-inflammatory Celebrex (celecoxib) (also known as Celebra in some countries outside the USA and Canada, mainly in South America). Its headquarters are in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
Pfizer's shares were made a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average on April 8, 2004.
Pfizer pleaded guilty in 2009 to the largest health care fraud in U.S. history and received the largest criminal penalty ever levied for illegal marketing of four of its drugs. Called a repeat offender, this was Pfizer's fourth such settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in the previous ten years.On January 26, 2009, Pfizer agreed to buy pharmaceutical giant Wyeth for US$68 billion, a deal financed with cash, shares and loans. The deal was completed on October 15, 2009
Charles Pfizer (March 22, 1824 in Ludwigsburg as Karl Pfizer – October 19, 1906) was a German chemist who immigrated to the United States in the early 1840s and founded the Pfizer Inc. pharmaceutical company in 1849 as Charles Pfizer & Co. He remained at its head until 1900, when the company was incorporated and Charles Pfizer, Jr. became its first president. When Charles Jr. retired, his brother Emil succeeded him in his post.
He made frequent trips to Europe, and met his wife Anna Hausch, whom he married in 1859, in his hometown of Ludwigsburg. They had five children.
He died at his summer home, Lindgate, in Newport, Rhode Island; his year-round home was in Brooklyn. His death came a few weeks after a fall down stairs in which he broke an arm and was otherwise badly injured. Two daughters, Alice, Baroness Bachofen von Echt and Mrs. Frederick Duncan of Vienna, were with him when he died.
This Frankish, German, and Jewish surname of FIZER was occasionally selected because of its associations with the Hebrew given name of YONA or JONAH, because Jonah in the book of the Bible that bears his name, was swallowed up by 'a Great Fish' and blessed by his father Jacob, with the words 'Let them grow into a multitude'. It was also an occupational name for a catcher or seller of fish or a nickname for someone bearing some supposed resemblance to a fish. The name can also be spelt FISH, FICHBACH (fish-stream), FISCHLIN, FISHSON and FIZEAU(female bones). Surnames are divided into four categories, from occupations, nicknames, baptismal and locational. All the main types of these are found in German-speaking areas, and names derived from occupations and from nicknames are particularly common. A number of these are Jewish. Patronymic surnames are derived from vernacular Germanic given names, often honouring Christian saints. Regional and ethnic names are also common. The German preposition 'von (from) or 'of', used with habitation names, is taken as a mark of aristocracy, and usually denoted proprietorship of the village or estate from where they came. Some members of the nobility affected the form VON UND ZU with their titles. In eastern Germany there was a heavy influence both from and on neighbouring Slavonic languages. Many Prussian surnames are of Slavonic origin. A notable member of the name was Armand Hippolyte Louis FIZEAU (1819-96) the French physicist. In 1849 he was the first to measure the velocity of light by an experiment confined to the earth's surface. American surnames comprise of surnames found in every country throughout the world, many with differences in spelling not seen in the old country due to the inability of clerks and Government officials to record correctly the names given them by unschooled immigrants not familiar with the English, French, German, Portugese, Dutch or Spanish languages currently used in the Port of entry or the part of the country where they settled. When an immigrant arriving in America with little knowledge of English gave his name verbally to the officials, it was written down by them as they heard it, and being thereby 'official' it was often accepted by the immigrant himself as the correct American rendering of his name.