The story of Pfizer begins in New York City in 1849, when a pair of German immigrants, cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles F. Erhart, received a $2,500 loan from Charles Pfizer's father to purchase a commercial building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where they would embark upon a joint business venture in the nascent chemical manufacturing industry.
In 1950 Pfizer would develop its first proprietary pharmaceutical product, Terramycin, a broad-spectrum antibiotic.
As the Pfizer pharmaceutical kingdom expanded questions about salacious business practices began to surface.
VIOLATIONS. Despite portraying itself as a righteous corporate citizen, Pfizer is no stranger to controversies and scandals.
In 2001 Pfizer was sued by 30 Nigerian families, who accused the company of using their children as "Human guinea pigs." The families contended that "Pfizer violated the Nuremberg Code as well as UN human rights standards and other ethical guidelines" and alleged that Pfizer exposed the children to "Cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment."
In one of these documents, it was found that a Neurontin team leader at Pfizer said, "I think we can limit the potential downside of the 224 study by delaying publication for as long as possible."
Finally, in 2010, a federal jury found that Pfizer committed racketeering fraud in its marketing of Neurontin; the judge in the case subsequently ordered the company to pay $142 million in damages.
Even after entering an expansive corporate integrity agreement with the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services as part of the 2009 settlement, Pfizer's unprincipled and injurious behavior continued.
The SEC alleged that "Employees and agents of Pfizer's subsidiaries in Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Italy, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Serbia made improper payments to foreign officials to obtain regulatory and formulary approvals, sales, and increased prescriptions for the company's pharmaceutical products."
Pfizer's portfolio of corporate crimes rivals that of the most corrupt companies in history.
All these years later-and despite Mr. Ricciardi's insistence on Pfizer's magnanimity-a thinking person might look through the company's checkered catalog of crimes and fines and recognize that noble experiments are hardly the realm of "Alleged" serial felons like Pfizer.
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