Pfizer was founded in 1849 in Brooklyn, New York. It started as a company that focused primarily on human health services and products. Now it focuses on three major segments of the health care industry, namely Pharmaceutical Health, Consumer Health and Animal Health, or Veterinary Services.
Pfizer has headquarters in New York. Initially it was a small company operating in the USA. Currently, it has more than 115000 employees in 180 countries. It has over 70 manufacturing facilities around the globe and invests $7.7 Billion in R&D annually!
Furthermore, Pfizer’s R&D locations are spread out in five countries and Pfizer also has 18 therapeutic areas across the globe.
A total of 15 medicines made by Pfizer are leaders in their respective segments. Lipitor, for example is the world’s largest selling medicine which is a cholesterol reduction medicine. Other names that are noteworthy are Listerine and Sudafed which can be found in 85 percent of American households. Pfizer is also the largest animal health company and leader in annual R&D investment.
These achievements by Pfizer make it one of the largest multinationals in the world and probably the biggest in the pharmaceutical sector.
Success Story…………
Pfizer offers an excellent example of how executives can recognize what their companies do well and use that understanding to build superior strategies.
The key to success of Pfizer is their strong sales team and huge investment on R&D. Moreover, Pfizer sales force uses leading edge information systems and technology to track the perception histories of physicians and to respond with sales coverage that delivers the biggest bang for the sales effort. The company’s information system also allows top management to plan the expansion of the sales force, to track its performance, and to link that performance with compensation. Further, this strong sales capability is a major asset of Pfizer, won the company co-marketing rights for several major drugs produced by other companies like Glaxo SmithKlein. Furthermore, an aggressive investment in R&D, Pfizer hired many of industries most experienced and talented scientist by offering them attractive compensation and un-beatable opportunity to conduct leading edge research.
‘Zoloft’, Pfizer’s most lucrative mental drug in history. According to analyst ‘Zoloft’, accounted for 40% of the market share in antidepressant bazaar compare to 18% Eli Lilly’s ‘Prozac’. Despite the similarity between two products, Pfizer gained share from Eli Lilly in the marketplace. The main reason for this success seems to have been Pfizer’s aggressive marketing and sales strategy, which created an impression in the eyes of physicians that Zoloft is a safer drug. Moreover Company creates a value chain through distribution strategy to the customers because of easy availability of Zoloft. Moreover, Pfizer sales force also logged more “face time” with psychiatrists than Eli Lilly.
The target market strategy was not just psychiatrists. Pfizer sales rep(s) also meet with general physicians to recommend the basic primary care if the patient cites with nausea, nervousness, anxiety, insomnia, and drowsiness. General Physicians are encouraged to prescribe Zoloft as antidepressants drug.