Overview

Pfizer is a global marketer of prescription drugs.

Pfizer’s headquarters is in New York.

Business segments and operations

See more: Pfizer’s business and brands

Marketing spending

Worldwide ad spending:
Total worldwide advertising spending figures shown in the Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers report are Pfizer’s stated worldwide “advertising expenses.”
 
Pfizer disclosed worldwide advertising expenses of $3.7 billion in 2023, up 32.1% from $2.8 billion in 2022.
 
U.S. ad spending:
Total U.S. advertising spending shown in the Ad Age Leading National Advertisers report is an Ad Age Datacenter estimate.

Links to Ad Age’s advertiser rankings

Latest rankings: U.S.

The Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2024 ranking was released Oct. 28, 2024.

Past rankings: U.S.

Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2023
Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2022

Latest rankings: worldwide

The Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2024 ranking was released Dec. 9, 2024.

Past rankings: worldwide

Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2023
Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2022

Financial results

See more: Pfizer financial results

Read Pfizer’s annual filing

Seagen:
Pfizer in December 2023 bought Seagen, a global biotechnology company focused on cancer medicines, for $44.2 billion ($43.4 billion, net of cash acquired).

Bothell, Washington-based Seagen disclosed worldwide advertising costs of $114.1 million in 2022; $88.8 million in 2021; and $59.3 million in 2020. Seagen’s brands included Padcev, Adcetris, Tukysa and Tivdak.

Global Blood Therapeutics:
Pfizer in October 2022 bought Global Blood Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company based in South San Francisco, California, for $5.7 billion ($5.2 billion, net of cash acquired).

Biohaven:
Pfizer in October 2022 bought Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Co. for about $11.5 billion.

New Haven, Connecticut-based Biohaven marketed Nurtec ODT/Vydura, a drug for treatment of migraine in adults.

Biohaven disclosed worldwide advertising costs of $162.9 million in 2021 and $107.0 million in 2020, including costs of endorsement and sponsorship contracts, TV, digital and print advertising, media fees and brand events.

Consumer health care:
Pfizer and GSK in 2019 merged their consumer health care businesses into a consumer health care joint venture. GSK spun off the consumer health care products business in 2022 as a separate public company, Haleon.
 
Pfizer owned 32% of Haleon as of year-end 2023. Pfizer sold part of that stake in the first quarter of 2024, reducing its Haleon share to about 23% as of June 2024.
 
This marked Pfizer’s second exit from consumer health care; the company sold its consumer health care unit to Johnson & Johnson in 2006.
 
Upjohn spinoff and merger with Mylan:
Pfizer and pharma firm Mylan in 2020 completed a deal to combine Mylan with Upjohn, Pfizer’s off-patent branded and generic established medicines business, creating Viatris, a global pharmaceutical company based in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.
 
Under the deal, Pfizer spun off Upjohn to Pfizer’s shareholders; Upjohn simultaneously combined with Mylan. Pfizer shareholders ended up with 57% of Viatris, and Mylan shareholders owned 43%.
 
Upjohn was incorporated in February 2019 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pfizer. Effective November 2020, Upjohn changed its name to Viatris and became the parent of the combined Upjohn and Mylan businesses.
 
Pfizer/Allergan merger (terminated):
Pfizer and Allergan in April 2016 terminated a planned merger. The deal, announced in November 2015, would have created the world’s biggest pharma marketer. 
 
U.S. pharma marketer AbbVie bought Allergan in May 2020.
 
Proposal to buy AstraZeneca:
Pfizer in January 2014 privately approached U.K.-based AstraZeneca with an offer to buy the company. AstraZeneca rejected the proposal.
 
Pfizer in April 2014 publicly disclosed its interest in AstraZeneca and then publicly announced higher takeover offers in May 2014, including an offer valuing AstraZeneca at about $120 billion that Pfizer said was its “final proposal.” AstraZeneca rejected those offers. 
 
Pfizer on May 26, 2014, said: “On 18 May 2014, Pfizer announced that it had made a final proposal to AstraZeneca to make an offer to combine the two companies. Following the AstraZeneca board’s rejection of the proposal, Pfizer announces that it does not intend to make an offer for AstraZeneca.”
 
Wyeth:
Pfizer in 2009 bought Wyeth, a marketer of prescription drugs and over-the-counter health care products, for $68 billion. 
 
The Wyeth deal put Pfizer back into the consumer products business. Wyeth over-the-counter brands included Advil, Centrum, ChapStick, Dimetapp, Preparation H, Robitussin and ThermaCare.
 
Wyeth was founded in 1926. Wyeth changed its name from American Home Products Corp. in March 2002. American Home Products had purchased John Wyeth & Brother, a drug maker, in 1931.
 
Pfizer, focusing on pharmaceuticals, had exited consumer products in 2006 when it sold Pfizer Consumer Healthcare (part of the former Warner-Lambert) to Johnson & Johnson for $16.6 billion cash. Over-the-counter brands in that transaction included Listerine, Purell, Sudafed, Lubriderm, Rogaine and Nicotrol. Johnson & Johnson in 2023 split off its consumer health care business as Kenvue.
 
Warner-Lambert:
Pfizer bought Warner-Lambert in June 2000 for $80 billion.
 
Coty:
Pfizer bought fragrance and cosmetics company Coty in 1963. The Benckiser family company (operating as Joh. A. Benckiser G.m.b.H.) in 1992 bought Coty from Pfizer for gross proceeds of about $440 million. Coty had been Pfizer’s fragrance and cosmetics division.
 
Other deals:
Pfizer in March 2022 bought San Diego-based Arena Pharmaceuticals, a clinical stage company developing therapies for treatment of several immuno-inflammatory diseases, for about $6.7 billion.
 
Pfizer in November 2021 bought the rest of Trillium, a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, for $2 billion, net of cash acquired. Pfizer previously had a 2% ownership stake.

Management and employees

Albert Bourla, a doctor of veterinary medicine, is Pfizer’s chairman and CEO.
 
See more: Pfizer management
 
See more: Pfizer careers

Stock

Pfizer trades on the New York Stock Exchange. Ticker: PFE

History

Cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart started Charles Pfizer & Co. in Brooklyn, New York in 1849.
 
See more: Pfizer’s history