Challenging Times for Pfizer

2007

Chuck Williams leaves after serving for six years as Pfizer’s first CTO/CIO. He’s replaced by Walt Hauck, who had been at Pfizer since 1995.

2008

Pfizer creates emerging markets business unit

Pilots the eCard patient loyalty card in the Philippines

CIO Hauck leaves, replaced by interim CIO Rich Nossek.

2009

Pfizer starts development of CUE, a cloud-based CRM application for sales agents marketing pharmaceuticals to physicians

(October) Pfizer acquires Wyeth for $68 billion, spending another $569 million on integration. Jeff Keisling, former Wyeth CIO, is appointed Pfizer CIO, replacing Nossek.

2010

Pfizer spends another $1 billion on Wyeth integration, completing 500 projects. Achieves $2 billion in cost reductions.

R&D spending is $9.4 billion

(December) CEO Jeff Kindler resigns under pressure from the board as other senior executives reportedly agitate for change at the top

Ian Read, former head of Pfizer’s worldwide biopharmaceutical business, takes over and continues cost-cutting plans already in progress

Workforce totals 110,600, down 10,100 from the October 2009 completion of the Wyeth acquisition

2011

Pfizer plans to reduce R&D spending by between $1.1 billion and $1.4 billion, to between $8 billion and $8.5 billion

(November) Lipitor patent expires

2012

Pfizer plans to cut $4 billion to $5 billion in costs by the end of the year. This includes another $1.5 billion to $2 billion from R&D, cutting that budget to $6.5 billion to $7 billion.

2019

Viagra patent expires

Follow Senior Editor Kim S. Nash on Twitter: @knash99.