Finding Pfizer: A map for Selling to Pfizer

Pfizer Inc. is a global biopharmaceutical corporation headquartered in New York City, where it was founded in 1849. In 2019, they ranked #1 on Pharma Exec’s list of top 50 pharmaceutical companies [1]. In 2018, they ranked #57 on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. [2] That year, Pfizer’s total revenue in 2018 was $45.3 billion USD [1].

Business Overview

Pfizer’s products are offered in over 125 countries and they employed about 92,400 people internationally at the end of 2018. Revenues from operations outside the United States accounted for 53% of total revenues in 2018; about $28.3 billion USD. China and Japan are Pfizer’s largest markets outside of the United States [3]. 

From 2016 until the end of 2018, Pfizer’s commercial operations were divided into two business segments: Pfizer Innovative Health (IH) and Pfizer Essential Health (EH).

• IH focuses on developing and commercializing novel products in six key therapeutic areas: vaccines, oncology, inflammation & immunology, rare diseases and consumer healthcare. 
• EH focuses on legacy brands that are or will soon be off-patent; these products include branded generics, generic sterile injectable products, biosimilars and select branded products including anti-infectives. 

As of 2019, Pfizer’s commercial operations will be managed through a new global structure consisting of three businesses: Pfizer Biopharmaceuticals Group (Biopharma), Upjohn and Consumer Healthcare.

• Biopharma will include the IH business units (except consumer healthcare) and the company’s new Hospital business unit (for commercializing sterile injectable and anti-infective medicines); Pfizer’s biosimilar portfolio has been added into the Oncology and Inflammation & Immunology therapeutic areas. 
• Upjohn will include all off-patent branded and generic established medicines; this is a joint venture with Mylan. 
• Consumer Healthcare will be a new consumer healthcare joint venture, consisting of both Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline’s respective consumer healthcare businesses. 

Pfizer’s research and development (R&D) expenses for 2019 came up to about $8.7 billion. Their research priorities include: Inflammation and Immunology; Internal Medicine; Oncology; Rare Diseases; Vaccines; Biosimilars. As of the end of January 2019, they had 95 projects in clinical development. Of that number, 26 were in Phase 1, 37 in Phase 2, 23 in Phase 3 and 9 in Registration. There are currently 516 active clinical trials being sponsored by Pfizer. 

For more information about R&D Spend for Pfizer and pharma’s other major players, check out Zymewire’s Big Pharma R&D Spend Report on Outsourcing Pharma!

?Table 1. Pfizer's Top Pharmaceutical Products

Outsourcing History

Pfizer outsources certain services to other parties, including: transaction processing, accounting, information technology, manufacturing, commercialization, clinical trial recruitment and execution, clinical lab services, non-clinical research, safety services and integrated facilities management.

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Clinical & Non-Clinical Research

A significant portion of Pfizer’s R&D is done internally. However, they also seek out collaborations, alliances and license agreements with third party companies (universities, biotechnology companies and other pharmaceutical firms) for R&D purposes. These agreements allow Pfizer to co-develop, license or acquire promising compounds, technologies or capabilities. Similarly, they also enter into agreements in which third parties will fund a portion of the development costs of certain pipeline products in exchange for rights, milestone payments, revenue sharing payments, profit sharing payments and/or royalties. Finally, Pfizer also has a history of leveraging acquisitions and equity- or debt-based investments to bolster their R&D efforts.

Pfizer operates two types of partnership when it comes to outsourcing R&D: the CRO Alliance Partner (AP) Model and the Pfizer Run Studies (PRS) Model. For the AP Model, teams can use the full services of a CRO [4]. Current CRO alliance partners are Parexel [5], ICON plc [5], Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) [6] and inVentiv [7]. In the past, they have partnered with Quintiles as well [5]. The PRS Model is used for early development projects and allows partners more flexibility by using a hybrid of Pfizer resources and those of a select number of CROs. 

Pfizer also has a history of acquiring start-ups with promising candidates and technologies in order to bolster their business. For example, in June 2019, they acquired Array BioPharma for $11.4B, thereby adding two approved oncology therapies to their portfolio and several candidate therapies to their pipeline [8]. Similarly, in May 2019, they acquired Therachon for $810M, thereby expanding the number of rare disease therapies in their pipeline [9].

Integrated Facilities Management

Pfizer outsources a wide range of facility services for their various locations internationally. These services range from mechanical and electrical maintenance, to mailroom services, front-of house services and catering. For example, in 2009, Pfizer entered into an agreement with CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) to provide facility management services to 10 of its European offices. Then, in January 2014, they extended this contract to include corporate office and R&D facilities for Pfizer in 55 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa [10]. 

Other Outsourcing

Pfizer also has a history of partnering with various third parties for access to relevant data and technology platforms. For example, in July 2019, they partnered with Synapse in order to gain access to the firm’s network of real-world data and advance their oncology outcomes research [11]. In April 2018, Pfizer partnered with TriNetX to gain access to data from various global healthcare organizations in order to advance clinical recruitment of patients with rare diseases and identify promising clinical trial sites [12]. 

Drug Development Sites

At the end of 2018, Pfizer owned and leased a total of 498 properties internationally (53 million square feet, in total), in over 90 different countries. These properties are for sales & marketing, customer service, regulatory compliance, R&D, manufacturing and distribution, and administrative support functions. Pfizer’s corporate headquarters are located in New York City (United States).

A heavy concentration of Pfizer’s R&D facilities is located in North America. In 2019, they opened new R&D facilities in St Louis, Missouri and Andover (Massachusetts, USA). Manufacturing for Pfizer is headquartered in various locations, with leadership teams primarily in New York City (NY, USA) and in Peapack (NJ, USA). At the end of 2018, Pfizer operated 58 manufacturing plants globally in locations such as Belgium, China, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the U.S. Several distribution facilities are also in operation internationally. 

A map of Pfizer’s various global locations can be found below. 

A map of Pfizer's global locations

Decision Making

Decision making has been classified into three sections: clinical outsourcing, manufacturing and logistics. This division should facilitate outreach efforts by different types of companies looking to conduct business with Pfizer. 

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Where are their clinical outsourcing decisions based out of?

North American clinical decision making for Pfizer is mainly based out of the United States and split across the Greater Boston Area (MA), San Diego (CA), Evanston (IL) and the Greater New York Area (NY). In the Greater Boston Area, you’ll find multiple Vice Presidents and Heads of Early Clinical Development as well as multiple Directors of Clinical Oncology Development. There are also multiple Directors of Clinical Oncology Development in San Diego. In Evanston, there is a Director of Clinical Development and, in the Greater New York Area, there is a Director of Vaccine Clinical Development. 

Clinical decision making for Europe is mostly split between the United Kingdom and France. In the United Kingdom, there are multiple Directors of Early Clinical Development in Cambridge and multiple Directors of Clinical Operations in Canterbury. In France, there is a Director of Early Clinical Development and a Director of Global Product Procurement in Paris. Elsewhere in Europe, in the Pavia Area of Italy, there is a Director of Oncology Clinical Development.

Clinical decisions for APAC are made out of China, India, Japan and Australia. In China, there is a Director of Clinical Development in the Shanghai Area. There are multiple Directors of Asset Leads in Chennai (India). There is a Director & Head of Clinical Operations in Tokyo (Japan). Finally, there are multiple Directors of Vaccine Clinical Research in New South Wales (Australia).

Where are their manufacturing decisions based out of?

The majority of manufacturing decision makers for North America are also based out of the United States. In Raleigh-Durham (NC), you’ll find multiple Directors of Clinical Manufacturing and a Director of Biologics Manufacturing. In Boulder (CO), you’ll find a Director of External Manufacturing. There are also multiple Directors of Manufacturing based out of the Greater Boston Area (MA) and the Greater St Louis Area (MO). 

European manufacturing decision makers are dispersed across multiple sites. An important title to keep an eye out for is Director of Manufacturing; you’ll find several people with this title in Stockholm (Sweden), Dublin (Ireland), Freiburg (Germany), Ascoli (Italy), Kent (UK) and Canterbury (UK). There is a Director of Contract Manufacturing in the Gent Area of Belgium and a Director of Small Molecule Manufacturing in Dublin (Ireland). There is also a Director of EMEA Third Party Manufacturing in Swindon (UK).

Manufacturing decisions for APAC are based out of Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan and India. In Perth (Australia) and Jakarta (Indonesia), you’ll find Directors of Manufacturing. In Hsinchu (Taiwan), there is a Director of Contract Manufacturing and in Mumbai (India), there is a Director of Contract Manufacturing. 

Where are their logistics decisions based out of? 

Logistics decision makers for North America are dispersed across the United States and Canada. There’s a Director of Global Sourcing and several Directors of Clinical Supply Logistics in Gorton (CT). In the Greater New York Area (NY), there is also a Director of Global Souring as well as multiple Directors of Supply Chain and Logistics. There are many Directors of Supply Chain spread out across Montreal (QC, Canada), the Greater Boston Area (MA) and Raleigh Durham (NC). There are multiple Directors of Clinical Supply Chain in the San Francisco Bay Area (CA) and there is a Director of Strategic Sourcing External Supply in Kalamazoo (MI). Finally, there is a Director of Global Procurement in Toronto (ON, Canada).

Logistics decision making for Europe is spread across several sites in multiple countries, with a particularly high presence in Ireland and Belgium. In Ireland, there is a Head of Global API Sourcing and multiple Directors of Global Procurement in Cork; There are also multiple Directors of Supply Chain in Dublin. In Belgium, there is a Director of Global External Supply Chain and a Director of Procurement in the Brussels area; There is also a Director of Supply Chain in the Antwerp area. Elsewhere, in the Amsterdam area of Netherlands, there is a Director Global Sourcing. There is also a Director of EMEA Regional Supply Chain in the Vienna Area of Austria and a Director of Supply Chain in the Stockholm of Sweden. 

Logistics decision makers for APAC are dispersed across China, Singapore, Australia and India. In China, you’ll find a Director of China Supply Chain & Logistics in Beijing and a Director of APAC Logistics in Hong Kong. In Singapore, you’ll find a Director of Asian External Supply Chain and a Director of Procurement. In Australia, there are several important decision makers in Sydney, including a Director of Developed Asia Supply Chain, a Director of Emerging Asia Supply Chain, a Director of Regional Supply Chain and a Director of Global Procurement & APAC Regional Lead. In the Mumbai area of India, there are also several decision makers including a Director of Global Procurement Emerging Asia, a Director of Procurement and a Director of India Cluster & Indo China Global Supply Chain Lead. 

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Innovation

One of the ways Pfizer fosters innovation is through their venture investment vehicle, Pfizer Ventures, through which they recently committed to investing up to $600M in biotechnology and other emerging growth companies [3]. Similarly, in 2018, they invested $800k in MaRS Innovation in Canada in order to support the funding of new ideas or technologies in the health sciences [13].

Pfizer is also looking to foster innovation in China, by investing $350M in a biotech center of excellence in the eastern Hanzhou region [14]. This location opened in 2018 and was the first biotech hub opened in China. The company also has a strong presence in American biotech hubs such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston-Cambridge, Greater Philadelphia, New Jersey and Raleigh-Durham [15].

Where can I find more information like this?

If you would like a simple solution for keeping an eye on drug sponsor companies, such as Pfizer, without relying on a database and generic lists of leads each week, we at Zymewire are here to help. Reach out today, and stay tuned for the next installment of Sponsor Atlas: Selling to the Pharma Giants. If you enjoy these articles, please feel free to give them a share!

Written by: Xhermi Trimi