Pfizer Inc. (Pfizer) operates as a research-based, global biopharmaceutical company.
The company applies science and its global resources to bring therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their lives through the discovery, development, manufacture, marketing, sale and distribution of biopharmaceutical products worldwide. The company works across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of its ti...
Pfizer Inc. (Pfizer) operates as a research-based, global biopharmaceutical company.
The company applies science and its global resources to bring therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their lives through the discovery, development, manufacture, marketing, sale and distribution of biopharmaceutical products worldwide. The company works across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of its time. The company collaborates with healthcare providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable healthcare around the world.
Most of the company’s revenues come from the manufacture and sale of biopharmaceutical products. The company’s medicines and vaccines provide significant value for healthcare providers and patients through improved treatment of diseases and improvements in health, wellness and productivity. The company seeks to enhance the value of its medicines and vaccines and actively engage in dialogues about how the company works with patients, physicians and payors to prevent and treat disease and improve outcomes.
The company’s 2025 key priorities are to improve R&D productivity with sharpened focus and achieve commercial excellence in its key categories.
The company is committed to strategically capitalizing on growth opportunities, primarily by advancing its own product pipeline and maximizing the value of its existing products, but also through various business development activities. The company views its business development activity as an enabler of its strategies and seeks to generate growth by pursuing opportunities and transactions that have the potential to strengthen its business and its capabilities. The company assesses its business, assets and scientific capabilities/portfolio as part of its regular, ongoing portfolio review process and also continue to consider business development activities that will help advance its business strategy.
Commercial Operations
The company manages its commercial operations through a global structure consisting of three segments, each led by a single manager: Biopharma, Pfizer CentreOne (PC1) and Pfizer Ignite.
Biopharma, the company’s science-based biopharmaceutical business, is engaged in the discovery, development, manufacture, marketing, sale and distribution of biopharmaceutical products worldwide.
PC1 is the company’s contract development and manufacturing organization and a leading supplier of specialty active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Pfizer Ignite is an offering that provides strategic guidance and end-to-end R&D services to select biotech companies that align with the company’s R&D focus areas.
Biopharma is the only segment. The company’s commercial divisions markets, sells and distributes its products, and global operating functions are responsible for the research, development, manufacturing and supply of its products. The commercial structure within the company’s Biopharma segment in 2024 was consists of the Pfizer Oncology Division, the Pfizer U.S. Commercial Division, and the Pfizer International Commercial Division:
Pfizer Oncology Division combined the U.S. Oncology commercial organizations, global Oncology marketing organizations and global and U.S. Oncology medical affairs from both Pfizer and Seagen (which the company acquired in December 2023).
Pfizer U.S. Commercial Division included the U.S. Primary Care and U.S. Specialty Care customer groups, the Chief Marketing Office, the Global Chief Medical Affairs Office and Global Access & Value.
Pfizer International Commercial Division included the ex-U.S. commercial and medical affairs organizations covering Pfizer’s entire product portfolio in all international markets.
As part of the company continued focus on commercial execution, at the beginning of 2025, the company made changes in its commercial structure, which included the transition of all activities within the Pfizer Oncology Division to other parts of Biopharma, among other changes. Specifically, within the company’s Biopharma segment, the U.S. Oncology commercial organization and the global Oncology marketing organization, which were part of the former Pfizer Oncology Division, are part of the Pfizer U.S. Commercial Division. In 2025, the commercial structure within the company’s Biopharma segment is as follows:
Pfizer U.S. Commercial Division
Pfizer U.S. Commercial Division includes the U.S. commercial and medical affairs organizations covering Pfizer’s entire product portfolio (excluding Oncology medical affairs, which is part of global R&D), as well as the Global Access & Value and Global Chief Marketing Office organizations.
Primary Care includes:
Internal medicine product portfolio of brands in cardiovascular metabolic, as well as brands that have experienced patent-based expirations or loss of regulatory exclusivity.
Migraine product portfolio.
Vaccines product portfolio across all ages with a pipeline focus on infectious diseases with significant unmet medical need, including COVID-19.
Treatment for COVID-19.
Specialty Care includes:
Inflammation & immunology product portfolio of brands and biosimilars for chronic immune and inflammatory diseases.
Rare disease product portfolio of brands for a number of therapeutic areas with rare diseases, including amyloidosis, hemophilia and endocrine diseases.
Hospital product portfolio of sterile injectable and immunoglobulin medicines.
Oncology includes:
Innovative oncology product portfolio of ADCs, small molecules, bispecifics and other immunotherapies that treat a wide range of cancers including certain types of breast cancer, genitourinary cancer and hematologic malignancies, as well as certain types of melanoma, gastrointestinal, gynecological and lung cancer.
Oncology biosimilars.
Pfizer International Commercial Division
Pfizer International Commercial Division includes the ex-U.S. commercial and medical affairs organizations covering Pfizer’s entire product portfolio in all international markets.
Select Primary Care, Specialty Care and Oncology products include:
Primary Care:
Internal Medicine: Eliquis, as well as other brands that have experienced patent-based expirations or loss of regulatory exclusivity.
Migraine: Nurtec ODT/Vydura and Zavzpret.
Vaccines: The Prevnar family, Comirnaty, Abrysvo, FSME/IMMUN-TicoVac, Nimenrix and Trumenba.
Treatment for COVID-19: Paxlovid.
Specialty Care:
Inflammation & immunology: Xeljanz, Enbrel (outside the U.S. and Canada), Inflectra, Abrilada, Cibinqo, Litfulo, Eucrisa and Velsipity.
Rare disease: The Vyndaqel family, Genotropin, BeneFIX, Xyntha, Somavert, Ngenla and Hympavzi.
Hospital: Sulperazon, Zavicefta, Octagam, Zithromax, Medrol and Panzyga.
Oncology: Ibrance, Xtandi, Padcev, Adcetris, Inlyta, Lorbrena, Bosulif, Tukysa, Braftovi, Mektovi, Orgovyx, Elrexfio, Tivdak and Talzenna.
Collaboration and Co-Promotion Agreements
The company uses collaboration and/or co-promotion arrangements to enhance its development, R&D, sales and distribution of certain biopharmaceutical products, which include, among others, the following:
Comirnaty is an mRNA-based coronavirus vaccine to help prevent COVID-19, which is being jointly developed and commercialized with BioNTech. Pfizer and BioNTech equally share the costs of development for the Comirnaty program. Comirnaty has been granted an approval or an authorization in many countries around the world in populations varying by country.
Eliquis (apixaban) is part of the Novel Oral Anticoagulant market and was jointly developed and commercialized with BMS as an alternative treatment option to warfarin in appropriate patients.
Xtandi (enzalutamide) is an androgen receptor inhibitor that blocks multiple steps in the androgen receptor signaling pathway within tumor cells that is being developed and commercialized in collaboration with Astellas.
Orgovyx (relugolix) is an oral gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) receptor antagonist for the treatment of adult patients with advanced prostate cancer that is being developed and commercialized with SMPS. Separately, in December 2024, the company terminated their collaboration with respect to the relugolix combination tablet.
Padcev (enfortumab vedotin-ejfv) is a first-in-class ADC that is directed to Nectin-4, a protein located on the surface of cells and highly expressed in bladder cancer, that is being co-developed and jointly commercialized with Astellas. In the U.S., Padcev has been approved for use with Keytruda (pembrolizumab) for adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer. Other approvals and indications for Padcev vary by market. In the U.S., Pfizer and Astellas jointly promote and are responsible for all U.S. distribution activities for Padcev. Outside the U.S., the company has commercialization rights in all countries in North and South America, and Astellas has commercialization rights in the rest of the world.
Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin) is being developed and commercialized in collaboration with Takeda. Pfizer has commercialization rights for Adcetris in the U.S. and its territories and in Canada. Takeda has commercialization rights in the rest of the world.
International Operations
The company’s operations are conducted globally. The company supplies its medicines and vaccines to approximately 200 countries and territories. Emerging markets are an important component of the company’s strategy for global leadership, and its commercial structure recognizes that the demographics and rising economic power of the fastest-growing emerging markets are becoming more closely aligned with the profile found within developed markets. Urbanization and the rise of the middle class in emerging markets provide potential growth opportunities for the company’s products.
Sales and Marketing
The company’s prescription biopharmaceutical products are sold principally to wholesalers, but it also sells directly to retailers, hospitals, clinics, government agencies and pharmacies. The company’s vaccines in the U.S. are primarily sold directly to the federal government (including the CDC), wholesalers, individual provider offices, retail pharmacies and integrated delivery systems. The company’s vaccines outside the U.S. are primarily sold to government and non-government institutions.
The company also seeks to gain access for its products on formularies, which are lists of approved medicines available to members of healthcare programs or PBMs in the U.S. Insurers and PBMs who design and negotiate formularies on their behalf use various benefit designs, such as tiered co-pays for formulary products, to drive utilization of products in preferred formulary positions, typically in exchange for a discount off the price of the medicine in the form of a rebate agreement. The company may also work with payors on disease management programs that help to develop tools and materials to educate patients and physicians on key disease areas.
The company promotes its products to healthcare providers and patients consistent with applicable laws. Through the company’s marketing organizations, it explains the approved uses, benefits and risks of the company’s products to healthcare providers and patients, and in the U.S., to MCOs that provide insurance coverage, such as hospitals, integrated delivery systems, PBMs and health plans; and employers and government agencies who hire MCOs to provide health benefits to their employees. In the U.S. and select international markets, the company markets directly to consumers through direct-to-consumer advertising that seeks to communicate the approved uses, benefits and risks of its products while motivating people to have meaningful conversations with their doctors. In addition, the company sponsors general advertising to educate the public on disease awareness, prevention and wellness, important public health issues and its patient assistance programs.
Government Regulation
The FDA, pursuant to the FFDCA, the Public Health Service Act and other federal statutes and regulations, extensively regulates pre- and post-marketing activities related to the company’s biopharmaceutical products and devices.
The company is also required to report adverse events and comply with current Good Manufacturing Practices (the FDA regulations that govern all aspects of manufacturing quality for pharmaceuticals) and the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (the law that, among other things, sets forth requirements related to product tracing, product identifiers and verification for manufacturers, wholesale distributors, third-party logistics providers, re-packagers and dispensers to facilitate the tracing of product through the pharmaceutical distribution supply chain), as well as advertising and promotion regulations.
In the EU, the EMA conducts the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of the company’s medicinal products that are eligible for the centralized marketing authorization procedure.
The company’s marketing practices are subject to federal and state laws, such as the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS), Civil Monetary Penalties Law, and False Claims Act, intended to prevent fraud and abuse in the healthcare industry.
History
Pfizer Inc. was founded in 1849. The company was incorporated under the laws of the state of Delaware in 1942.