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Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Climate change policy of the United States

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Global climate change was first addressed in United States policy beginning in the early 1950s. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines climate change as "any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time." Essentially, climate change includes major changes in temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns, as well as other effects, that occur over several decades or longer. Climate change policy in the U.S. has transformed rapidly over the past twenty years and is being developed at both the state and federal level. The politics of global warming and climate change have polarized certain political parties and other organizations. This article focuses on climate change policy within the United States, as well as exploring the positions of various parties and the influences on policy making and environmental justice repercussions.

International law

The United States, although a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, has neither ratified nor withdrawn from the protocol. In 1997, the US Senate voted unanimously under the Byrd–Hagel Resolution that it was not the sense of the Senate that the United States should be a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol. In 2001, former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, stated that the Protocol "is not acceptable to the Administration or Congress".

The United States, along with Kazakhstan, have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. The protocol is non-binding over the United States unless ratified. Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and (as of January 2015) Barack Obama did not submit the treaty for ratification.

In October 2003, the Pentagon published a report titled An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security by Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall. The authors conclude by stating, "this report suggests that, because of the potentially dire consequences, the risk of abrupt climate change, although uncertain and quite possibly small, should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a U.S. national security concern."

Congress

In October 2003 and again in June 2005, the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act failed a vote in the US Senate. In the 2005 vote, Republicans opposed the Bill 49-6, while Democrats supported it 37–10.

In January 2007, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she would form a United States Congress subcommittee to examine global warming. Sen. Joe Lieberman said, "I'm hot to get something done. It's hard not to conclude that the politics of global warming has changed and a new consensus for action is emerging and it is a bipartisan consensus." Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) introduced the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act on January 15, 2007. The measure would provide funding for R&D on geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2), set emissions standards for new vehicles and a renewable fuels requirement for gasoline beginning in 2016, establish energy efficiency and renewable portfolio standards beginning in 2008 and low-carbon electric generation standards beginning in 2016 for electric utilities, and require periodic evaluations by the National Academy of Sciences to determine whether emissions targets are adequate. However, the bill died in committee. Two more bills, the Climate Protection Act and the Sustainable Energy Act, proposed February 14, 2013, also failed to pass committee.

The House of Representatives approved the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) on June 26, 2009, by a vote of 219–212, but the bill failed to pass the Senate.

In March 2011, the Republicans submitted a bill to the U.S. congress that would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gasses as pollutants. As of July 2012, the EPA continues to oversee regulation under the Clean Air Act.

Clinton administration

Upon the start of his presidency in 1993, Bill Clinton committed the United States to lowering their greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2000 through his biodiversity treaty, reflecting his attempt to return the United States to the global platform of climate policy. Clinton's British Thermal Unit (BTU) Tax and Climate Change Action Plan were also announced within the first year of his presidency, calling for a tax on energy heat content and plans for energy efficiency and joint implementations, respectively. 

The Climate Change Action Plan was announced on October 19, 1993. This plan aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2000. Clinton described this goal as "ambitious but achievable," and called for 44 action steps to achieve this goal. Among these steps were voluntary participation by industry, especially those in the commercial and energy supply fields. Clinton allotted $1.9 billion to fund this plan from the federal budget and called for an additional $60 billion funding to come voluntarily businesses and industries.

The British Thermal Tax proposed by Clinton in early 1993 called for a tax on producers of gasoline, oil, and other fuels based on fuel content in accordance to the British Thermal Unit (BTU). The British Thermal Unit is a measure of heat corresponding to the quantity of heat needed to raise the temperature of water by one degree Fahrenheit. The tax also applied to electricity produced by hydro and nuclear power, but exempted renewable energy sources such as geothermal, solar, and wind. The Clinton Administration planned to collect up to $22.3 billion in revenue from the tax by 1997. The tax was opposed by the energy-intensive industry, who feared that the price increase caused by the tax would make U.S. products undesirable on an international level, and thus was never fully implemented.

In 1994, the U.S. called for a new limit on greenhouse gas emissions post-2000 in at the August 1994 INC-10. They also called for a focus on joint implementation, and for new developing countries to limit their emissions. Environmental groups, including the Climate Action Network (CAN), critiqued these efforts, questioning U.S. focus on limiting the emissions of other countries when it had not established its own.

The U.S. government under Clinton succeeded in pushing its agenda for joint implementation in the 1995 Conference of the Parties (COP-1). This victory is noted in the Berlin Mandate of April 1995, which called for developed countries to lead the implementation of national mitigation policies.

Clinton signed the Kyoto Protocol on behalf of the United States in 1997, pledging the country to a non-binding 7% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. He claimed that the agreement was "environmentally strong and economically sound," and expressed a desire for greater involvement in the treaty by developing nations.

In his second term, Clinton announced his FY00 proposal, which allotted funding for a new set of environmental policies. Under this proposal, the President announced a new Clean Air Partnership Fund, new tax incentives and investments, and funding for environmental research of both natural and manmade changes to the climate.

The Clean Air Partnership Fund was proposed to finance state and local government efforts for greenhouse gas emission reductions in cooperation with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Under this fund, $200 million was allotted to promote and finance innovation projects meant to reduce air pollution. It also supported the creation of partnerships between the local and federal governments, and private sector.

The Climate Change Technology Initiative provided $4 billion in tax incentives over a five-year period. The tax credits applied to energy efficient homes and building equipment, implementation of solar energy systems, electric and hybrid vehicles, clean energy, and the power industry. The Climate Change Technology Initiative also provided funding for additional research and development on clean technology, especially in the building, electricity, industry, and transportation sectors.

Bush administration

In March 2001, the Bush Administration announced that it would not implement the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty signed in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan that would require nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, claiming that ratifying the treaty would create economic setbacks in the U.S. and does not put enough pressure to limit emissions from developing nations. In February 2002, Bush announced his alternative to the Kyoto Protocol, by bringing forth a plan to reduce the intensity of greenhouse gasses by 18 percent over 10 years. The intensity of greenhouse gasses specifically is the ratio of greenhouse gas emissions and economic output, meaning that under this plan, emissions would still continue to grow, but at a slower pace. Bush stated that this plan would prevent the release of 500 million metric tons of greenhouse gases, which is about the equivalent of 70 million cars from the road. This target would achieve this goal by providing tax credits to businesses that use renewable energy sources.

The Bush administration has been accused of implementing an industry-formulated disinformation campaign designed to actively mislead the American public on global warming and to forestall limits on "climate polluters", according to a report in Rolling Stone magazine that reviews hundreds of internal government documents and former government officials. The book Hell and High Water asserts that there has been a disingenuous, concerted and effective campaign to convince Americans that the science is not proven, or that global warming is the result of natural cycles, and that there needs to be more research. The book claims that, to delay action, industry and government spokesmen suggest falsely that "technology breakthroughs" will eventually save us with hydrogen cars and other fixes. It calls on voters to demand immediate government action to curb emissions. Papers presented at an International Scientific Congress on Climate Change, held in 2009 under the sponsorship of the University of Copenhagen in cooperation with nine other universities in the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU), maintained that the climate change skepticism that is so prevalent in the USA "was largely generated and kept alive by a small number of conservative think tanks, often with direct funding from industries having special interests in delaying or avoiding the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions".

According to testimony taken by the U.S. House of Representatives, the Bush White House pressured American scientists to suppress discussion of global warming "High-quality science" was "struggling to get out", as the Bush administration pressured scientists to tailor their writings on global warming to fit the Bush administration's skepticism, in some cases at the behest of an ex-oil industry lobbyist. "Nearly half of all respondents perceived or personally experienced pressure to eliminate the words 'climate change,' 'global warming' or other similar terms from a variety of communications." Similarly, according to the testimony of senior officers of the Government Accountability Project, the White House attempted to bury the report "National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change", produced by U.S. scientists pursuant to U.S. law, Some U.S. scientists resigned their jobs rather than give in to White House pressure to underreport global warming. and removed key portions of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report given to the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee about the dangers to human health of global warming.

The Bush Administration worked to undermine state efforts to mitigate global warming. Mary Peters, the Transportation Secretary at that time, personally directed US efforts to urge governors and dozens of members of the House of Representatives to block California's first-in-the-nation limits on greenhouse gases from cars and trucks, according to e-mails obtained by Congress.

Obama administration

New Energy for America is a plan to invest in renewable energy, reduce reliance on foreign oil, address the global climate crisis, and make coal a less competitive energy source. It was announced during Barack Obama's presidential campaign. 

On November 17, 2008 President-elect Barack Obama proposed, in a talk recorded for YouTube, that the US should enter a cap and trade system to limit global warming.

The president established a new office in the White House, the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, and selected Carol Browner as Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change. Browner is a former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and was a principal of The Albright Group LLC, a firm that provides strategic advice to companies.

American Clean Energy and Security Act, a cap and trade bill was passed on June 26, 2009 in the House of Representatives, but was not passed by the Senate. 

On January 27, 2009, Secretary of State Clinton appointed Todd Stern as the department's Special Envoy for Climate Change. Clinton said, "With the appointment today of a special envoy we are sending an unequivocal message that the United States will be energetic, focused, strategic and serious about addressing global climate change and the corollary issue of clean energy." Stern, who had coordinated global warming policy in the late 1990s under the Bill Clinton administration, said that "The time for denial, delay and dispute is over.... We can only meet the climate challenge with a response that is genuinely global. We will need to engage in vigorous, dramatic diplomacy."

In February 2009, Stern said that the U.S. would take a lead role in the formulation of a new climate change treaty in Copenhagen in December 2009. He made no indication that the U.S. would ratify the Kyoto Protocol in the meantime. US Embassy dispatches subsequently released by whistleblowing site WikiLeaks showed how the US 'used spying, threats and promises of aid' to gain support for the Copenhagen Accord, under which its emissions pledge is the lowest by any leading nation.

President Barack Obama said in September 2009 that if the international community would not act swiftly to deal with climate change that "we risk consigning future generations to an irreversible catastrophe...The security and stability of each nation and all peoples—our prosperity, our health, and our safety—are in jeopardy, and the time we have to reverse this tide is running out." 

President Obama said in 2010 that it was time for the United States "to aggressively accelerate" its transition from oil to alternative sources of energy and vowed to push for quick action on climate change legislation, seeking to harness the deepening anger over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The 2010 United States federal budget proposed to support clean energy development with a 10-year investment of US $15 billion per year, generated from the sale of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions credits. Under the proposed cap-and-trade program, all GHG emissions credits would be auctioned off, generating an estimated $78.7 billion in additional revenue in FY 2012, steadily increasing to $83 billion by FY 2019.

New rules for power plants were proposed March 2012.

In U.S. and China's Sunnylands Summit on June 8, 2013 President Barack Obama and President of China, Xi Jinping, worked in accordance for the first time, formulating a landmark agreement to reduce both production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). This agreement had the unofficial goal of decreasing roughly 90 gigatons of CO2 by 2050 and implementation was to be led by the institutions created under the Montreal Protocol, while progress was tracked using the reported emissions that were mandated under the Kyoto Protocol. The Obama administration viewed HFCs as a “serious climate mitigation concern.” 

On March 31, 2015 the Obama administration formally submitted the U.S. Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) for greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). According to the U.S. submission, the United States committed to reducing emissions 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025, a reflection of the Obama administration's goal to convert the U.S. economy into one low-carbon reliance.

In 2015, Obama also announced the Clean Power Plan, which is the final version of regulations originally proposed by the EPA the previous year, and which pertains to carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

In the same year, President Obama announced his aim for a 40-45% reduction below 2012 levels in methane emissions by 2025, recognizing the potency and prevalence of these emissions within the oil and gas industry. In March 2016, the President would later solidify this goal in an agreement with Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, stating that the two federal governments will jointly work together to reduce methane emissions in North America. The nations released a joint statement outlining general methods and strategies to reach such goals within their respective jurisdictions. In adherence to this goal, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would take on the responsibility in regulating methane emissions, requiring information from big-time methane emitting industries. Emission information from these industries would be used in the promotion of research and development for methane reduction, formulating differentiated standards and cost-effective policies. The United States and Canada will jointly exchange any progress in research and development for optimal efficiency, while practicing transparency in regards to their respective progress with each other and the rest of North America, continuing to strengthen the bond with Mexico.

On May 12, 2016, after three public hearing and a review of over 900,000 public comments, the administration took the next step to reduce methane emissions. The administration released an Information Collection Request (ICR), requiring all methane emitting operations to provide reports of their levels of emissions for EPA analysis so that policies could begin to be formulated and high emitting sources could be identified. New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) were implemented, building off previous requirements to reduce VOC emissions (byproduct of methane). The new standards set emission limits for methane; reductions were to be made through transition to newer and cleaner production equipment, fixed monitoring of leaks at operation sites using innovative techniques, and the capturing of emissions from hydraulic fracturing. More specifically, well sites, regardless of size or operation, were to be checked for leaks at least twice a year, while compressor stations were required to monitor every quarter. Owners and operators can make these observances one of two ways, either through optical gas imaging or through the use of a portable monitoring instrument; innovative strategies to monitor leaks must be approved. Once these checks are made, mandatory surveys must be submitted no later than a year after final results are gathered. Additionally, "green completion" requirements, regarding the process for seizing emissions from hydraulically fractured oil wells, were outlined for owners of oil wells. 

A September 2016 study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory analyses a set of definite and proposed climate change policies for the United States and finds that these are just insufficient to meet the US intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) under the 2015/2016 Paris Agreement. Additional greenhouse gas reduction measures will probably be required to meet this international commitment. These additional reduction measures will soon have to be decided on in order to start complying with the agreement's "below 2 degrees" goal, and countries may have to be more proactive than previously thought.

An October 2016 report compares US government spending on climate security and military security and finds the latter to be 28 × greater. The report estimates that public sector spending of $55 billion is needed to tackle climate change. The 2017 national budget contains $21 billion for such expenditures, leaving a shortfall of $34 billion that could be recouped by scrapping underperforming weapons programs. The report nominates the F-35 fighter and close-to-shore combat ship projects as possible targets.

Transportation

President's 21st century clean transportation plan
In June 2015, the Obama administration released the President's 21st Century Clean Transportation Plan with the goal of reducing carbon pollution by converting the nation's century old infrastructure into one based on clean energy.This plan intended to battle climate change by reducing emissions through a switch to more sustainable forms of transportation, resulting from a potential increase of innovation in both public transit and electric vehicle production in the United States.The President stated that the revitalization of the infrastructure would not only create jobs, but also allow for quicker deliveries of goods, and allow for a greater variety of transportation options that would facilitate travel for Americans.The President's multibillion dollar proposal provided incentives to reduce reliance on international oil and fossil fuels.

This plan fundamentally relied on an increase in investment into sustainable transportation, Previously, such investment into transportation was supported by the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST), an act passed in December 2015 by the Obama administration. FAST was formulated to reduce traffic and increase the quality of air by reducing emissions, yet this act proved to be slow in gathering infrastructure investments. Thus, the President proposed a tax on oil, a gradual $10 per barrel, in order to subsidize this plan to improve infrastructure and further drive down the incentive to consume large quantities of oil, possibly furthering the urge to switch to more sustainable forms of transportation. Ultimately, this plan did not appeal to GOP leaders and as a result it was never enacted; the act was denied funding in the House of Representatives by U.S. Congressman Paul A. Gosar and his Republican coalition, enacting their fundamental “power of the purse.”
Climate action plan progress report
In June 2015, under Obama's Climate Action Plan Progress Report, the EPA announced that they were going to propose new standards for both medium and heavy-duty engines and vehicles, building off standards that were already enacted. These proposals were projected to decrease emissions by 270 million metric tons and save vehicle owners around $50 billion in fuel costs.

The Climate Action Plan progress report also addressed air craft, transit, and maritime emissions. The EPA released an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, increasing transparency around the plans of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in tightening carbon pollution standards. Additionally, under the Next Generation Transportation System (NextGen), the Federal Aviation Administration has worked jointly with the aviation industry in formulating technology that supports a reduction in emissions and increase in fuel efficiency. With respect to maritime emissions, the Obama administration oversaw, in cooperation with the Maritime Administration, the increase of investments into more fuel-efficient ships, finalizing the creation of two ships that have been used in the Puerto-Rico to Jacksonville route. Similar investments were pumped into transit, which made it possible for buses and other forms of transit to switch to other forms of energy such as natural gas and electric.
Model year 2012-2016 standards and model year 2017-2025 standards
In April 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) formulated a national program that would finalize new standards for model year 2012 through 2016 passenger cars, light-duty trucks, and medium duty passenger vehicles. With these new standards, vehicles were required to meet an average emissions level of 250 grams of carbon dioxide per mile by model year 2016. This was the first time the EPA had taken measures to regulate vehicular GHG emissions under the Clean Air Act. Additionally, the administration established Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act.

In August 2012, the administration expanded on these standards for model years 2017 through 2025 vehicles, issuing final rules and standards that were to result in a 163 gram emission per mile by model year 2025.

Trump administration

During his campaign, Donald Trump made promises to roll back some of the Obama-era regulations enacted with the purpose of combating climate change. He has questioned if climate change is real and has indicated that he will focus his efforts on other causes as president. Trump has also expressed that efforts to curb fossil fuel industries hurt the United States' global competitiveness. He pledged to roll back regulations placed on the oil and gas industry by the EPA under the Obama administration in order to boost the productivity of both industries.

President Trump appointed the Attorney General of Oklahoma, Scott Pruitt, as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While serving as Attorney General, Pruitt removed Oklahoma's environmental protection unit and sued the EPA a total of fourteen times, thirteen of which involved “industry players” as co-parties. His nomination to head the EPA was confirmed on February 17, 2017 with a 52-46 vote. In addition, President Trump appointed Rex W. Tillerson, the former chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil, as secretary of state. His nomination was confirmed on February 1, 2017 with a 56-43 vote.

An executive order was issued by President Trump on January 24, 2017 that removed barriers from the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines, making it easier for the companies sponsoring them to continue with production. On March 29, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order aimed towards boosting the coal industry. The executive order rolls back on Obama-era climate regulations on the coal industry in order to grow the coal sector and create new American jobs. The White House has indicated that any climate change policies that they deem hinder the growth of American jobs will not be pursued. In addition, the executive order rolls back on six Obama-made orders aimed at reducing climate change and carbon dioxide emissions and calls for a review of the Clean Power Plan.

In his early 2017 budget proposal, President Trump presented cutting about 31% of the EPA as a result of budget decreases. President Trump cut one-third of the Environmental Protection Agency's current funding- about $2.6 billion from its current $8.2 billion budget. If passed, this would be the lowest budget the EPA has had in 40 years.

Environmental justice

The shift in direction of environmental policy in the United States under the Trump administration has led to a change in the environmental justice sector. On March 9, 2017, Mustafa Ali, a leader of the environmental justice sector in the EPA, resigned over proposed cuts to the environmental justice sector of the EPA. The preliminary budget proposals would cut the environmental justice office's budget by 1/4, causing a 20% reduction in its workforce. The environmental justice program is one of a dozen vulnerable to losing all governmental funding.

State and local policy

States that have declared GHG mitigation strategies or hold action plans
 
Map of states and regions and Climate Registry status, 2008
 
Across the country, regional organizations, states, and cities are achieving real emissions reductions and gaining valuable policy experience as they take action on climate change. These actions include increasing renewable energy generation, selling agricultural carbon sequestration credits, and encouraging efficient energy use. The U.S. Climate Change Science Program is a joint program of over twenty U.S. cabinet departments and federal agencies, all working together to investigate climate change. In June 2008, a report issued by the program stated that weather would become more extreme, due to climate change.

As described in a 2007 brief by the PEW Center on Global Climate Change, "States and municipalities often function as "policy laboratories", developing initiatives that serve as models for federal action. This has been especially true with environmental regulation—most federal environmental laws have been based on state models. In addition, state actions can have a significant impact on emissions, because many individual states emit high levels of greenhouse gases. Texas, for example, emits more than France, while California's emissions exceed those of Brazil."

City and state governments often act as liaisons to the business sector, working with stakeholders to meet standards and increase alignment with city and state goals. This section will provide an overview of major statewide climate change policies as well as regional initiatives.

Arizona

On September 8, 2006, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano signed an executive order calling on the state to create initiatives to cut greenhouse gas emissions to the 2000 level by the year 2020 and to 50 percent below the 2000 level by 2040.

California

California (the world's sixth largest economy) has long been seen as the state-level pioneer in environmental issues related to global warming and has shown some leadership in the last four years. On July 22, 2002, Governor Gray Davis approved AB 1493, a bill directing the California Air Resources Board to develop standards to achieve the maximum feasible and cost-effective reduction of greenhouse gases from motor vehicles. Now the California Vehicle Global Warming law, it requires automakers to reduce emissions by 30% by 2016. Although it has been challenged in the courts by the automakers, support for the law is growing as other states have adopted similar legislation. On September 7, 2002 Governor Davis approved a bill requiring the California Climate Action Registry to adopt procedures and protocols for project reporting and carbon sequestration in forests. (SB 812. Approved by Governor Davis on September 7, 2002) California has convened an interagency task force, housed at the California Energy Commission, to develop these procedures and protocols. Staff are currently seeking input on a host of technical questions.

On June 2005, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an executive order calling for the following reductions in state greenhouse gas emissions: 11 percent by 2010, 25 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. Measures to meet these targets include tighter automotive emissions standards, and requirements for renewable energy as a proportion of electricity production. The Union of Concerned Scientists has calculated that by 2020, drivers would save $26 billion per year if California's automotive standards were implemented nationally.

On August 30, 2006, Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature reached an agreement on AB32, the Global Warming Solutions Act. The bill was signed into law on September 27, 2006, by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who declared, "We simply must do everything we can in our power to slow down global warming before it is too late... The science is clear. The global warming debate is over." The Act caps California's greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by 2020, and institutes a mandatory emissions reporting system to monitor compliance. This agreement represents the first enforceable statewide program in the U.S. to cap all GHG emissions from major industries that includes penalties for non-compliance. This requires the State Air Resources Board to establish a program for statewide greenhouse gas emissions reporting and to monitor and enforce compliance with this program. The legislation will also allow for market mechanisms to provide incentives to businesses to reduce emissions while safeguarding local communities, and authorizes the state board to adopt market-based compliance mechanisms including cap-and-trade, and allows a one-year extension of the targets under extraordinary circumstances. Thus far, flexible mechanisms in the form of project based offsets have been suggested for five main project types. A carbon project would create offsets by showing that it has reduced carbon dioxide and equivalent gases. The project types include: manure management, forestry, building energy, SF6, and landfill gas capture.

Additionally, on September 26 Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB 107, which requires California's three major biggest utilities – Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas and Electric – to produce at least 20% of their electricity using renewable sources by 2010. This shortens the time span originally enacted by Gov. Davis in September 2002 to increase utility renewable energy sales 1% annually to 20% by 2017. 

Gov. Schwarzenegger also announced he would seek to work with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain, and various other international efforts to address global warming, independently of the federal government.

Connecticut

The state of Connecticut passed a number of bills on global warming in the early to mid 1990s, including—in 1990—the first state global warming law to require specific actions for reducing CO2. Connecticut is one of the states that agreed, under the auspices of the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers (NEG/ECP), to a voluntary short-term goal of reducing regional greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2010 and by 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The NEG/ECP long-term goal is to reduce emissions to a level that eliminates any dangerous threats to the climate—a goal scientists suggest will require reductions 75 to 85 percent below current levels. These goals were announced in August 2001. The state has a Regional lso acted to require additions in renewable electric generation by 2009.

Maryland

Maryland began a partnership with the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) in 2015 to research impacts and solutions to climate change called the Maryland Climate Change Commission.

New York

In August 2009, Governor David Paterson created the New York State Climate Action Council (NYSCAC) and tasked them with creating a direct action plan. In 2010, the NYSCAC released a 428-page Interim Report which outlined a plan to reduce emissions and highlighted the impact climate change will have in the future. In 2010, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority also commissioned a report about statewide climate change impacts, later published in November 2011. After Hurricanes Sandy and Irene along with Tropical Storm Lee, the state updated vulnerability in regards to the condition of its critical infrastructure.

A snapshot of the destruction Hurricane Sandy wrought, flooding coastlines and forcing many residents to flee for safety. Houses and critical infrastructure were destroyed.
 
According to the 2015 New York State Energy Plan, renewable sources, which include wind, hydropower, solar, geothermal, and sustainable biomass, have the potential to meet 40 percent of the state's energy needs by 2030. As of 2018, sustainable energy use comprises 11 percent of all energy usage. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority offers incentives in the form of grants and loans to its residents to adopt renewable energy technologies and create renewable energy businesses. 

Other state climate change mitigation laws have gone into effect. The net metering laws make it easier for both residents and businesses to use solar power by feeding unused energy back into electrical fields and receive credit from their power suppliers. Although one version was released in 1997, it was exclusively limited to residential systems using up to 10 kilowatts of energy. However, on June 1, 2011, the laws were expanded to include farm and non-residential buildings. The Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard set a statewide target for renewable energy and offered incentives to residents to use the new technologies.

In June 2018, the state announced its first major update in over two decades to its Environmental Quality Review (EQR) regulations. The update involves streamlining the environmental review process and encouraging renewable energy. It also expanded the Type II actions, or "list of actions not subject to further review", including green infrastructure upgrades and retrofits. Furthermore, solar arrays are set to be installed in sites like brownfields, wastewater treatment facilities, and land zoned for industry. The regulations will take effect on January 1, 2019.

New York State Energy Plan

In 2014, Governor Andrew Cuomo enforced the state's hallmark energy policy, Reforming the Energy Vision. This involves building a new network that will connect the central grid with clean, locally generated power. The method for this undertaking falls to the Energy Plan, a comprehensive plan to build a clean, resilient, affordable energy system for all New Yorkers. It will foster "economic prosperity and environmental stewardship" and cooperation between government and industry. Concrete goals thus far include a 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas from 1990 levels, electricity sourced from 50 percent of renewable energy sources, and a 600 billion Btu increase in statewide energy efficiency.

Clean Energy Standards

Clean Energy Standard (CES) policies are policies which favor lowering non-renewable energy emissions and increasing renewable energy use. They are helping to drive the transition to cleaner energy, by building upon existing energy portfolio standards, and could be applied broadly at the federal level and developed more acutely at the regional and state levels. CES policies have had success at the federal level, gaining bipartisan support during the Obama administration. Iowa was the first state to adopt CES policies, and now a majority of states have adopted CES policies. Similar to CES policies, Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) are standards set in place to ensure a greater integration of renewable energies in state and regional energy portfolios. Both CES and RPS are helping increase the use of clean and renewable energies in the United States.
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
In 2003, New York State proposed and attained commitments from nine Northeast states to form a cap and trade carbon dioxide emissions program for power generators, called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). This program launched on January 1, 2009 with the aim to reduce the carbon "budget" of each state's electricity generation sector to 10 percent below their 2009 allowances by 2018. Ten Northeastern US states are involved in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, It is believed that the state-level program will apply pressure on the federal government to support Kyoto Protocol. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a cap and trade system for CO2 emissions from power plants in the member states. Emission permit auctioning began in September 2008, and the first three-year compliance period began on January 1, 2009. Proceeds will be used to promote energy conservation and renewable energy. The system affects fossil fuel power plants with 25 MW or greater generating capacity ("compliance entities"). Since 2005, the participating states have collectively seen an over 45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by RGGI-affected power plants. This has resulted in cleaner air, better health, and economic growth.
Western Climate Initiative
Western Climate Initiative members, 2008
 
Since February 2007, seven U.S. states and four Canadian provinces have joined together to create the Western Climate Initiative, a regional greenhouse gas emissions trading system. The Initiative was created when the West Coast Global Warming Initiative (California, Oregon, and Washington) and the Southwest Climate Change Initiative (Arizona and New Mexico) joined efforts with Utah and Montana, along with British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec.

The nonprofit organization WCI, Inc., was established in 2011 and supports implementation of state and regional greenhouse gas trading programs.
Powering the Plains Initiative
The Powering the Plains Initiative (PPI) began in 2002 and aims to expand alternative energy technologies and improve climate-friendly agricultural practices. Its most significant accomplishment was a 50-year energy transition roadmap for the upper Midwest, released in June 2007.
  • Participating states: Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Canadian Province of Manitoba

Litigation by states

Several lawsuits have been filed over global warming. In 2007 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency that the Clean Air Act gives the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to regulate greenhouse gases, such as tailpipe emissions. A similar approach was taken by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer who filed a lawsuit California v. General Motors Corp. to force car manufacturers to reduce vehicles' emissions of carbon dioxide. A third case, Comer v. Murphy Oil, was filed by Gerald Maples, a trial attorney in Mississippi, in an effort to force fossil fuel and chemical companies to pay for damages caused by global warming.

In June 2011, the United States Supreme Court overturned 8–0 a U.S. appeals court ruling against five big power utility companies, brought by U.S. states, New York City, and land trusts, attempting to force cuts in United States greenhouse gas emissions regarding global warming. The decision gives deference to reasonable interpretations of the United States Clean Air Act by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Position of political parties and other political organizations

In the 2016 presidential campaigns, the two major parties established different positions on the issue of global warming and climate change policy. The Democratic Party plays an active and positive role of climate change. The Republican Party denies the existence of global warming and continues to meet its party goals of expanding the energy industries and curbing the efforts of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Other parties including the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, and the Constitution Party possess various views of climate change and mostly keep parties' own long-standing positions to influence their party members.

Democratic Party

In its 2016 platform, the Democratic Party views climate change as “an urgent threat and a defining challenge of our time.” Democrats are dedicated to “curbing the effects of climate change, protecting America's natural resources, and ensuring the quality of our air, water, and land for current and future generations.”

With respect to the climate change, the Democratic Party believes that “carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gasses should be priced to reflect their negative externalities, and to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy and help meet our climate goals.” Democrats are also committed to “implementing, and extending smart pollution and efficiency standards, including the Clean Power Plan, fuel economy standards for automobiles and heavy-duty vehicles, building codes and appliance standards.”

Democrats emphasize the importance of environmental justice. The party calls attention to the environmental racism as the climate change has disproportionately impacted low-income and minority communities, tribal nations and Alaska Native villages. The party believes “clean air and clean water are basic rights of all Americans.”

Republican Party

The Republican Party has varied views on climate change. The most recent 2016 Republican Platform denies the existence of climate change and dismisses scientists’ efforts of easing global warming. 

In 2014, President Barack Obama proposed a series of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations, known as the Clean Power Plan that would reduce carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants. The Republican Party has viewed these efforts as a “war on coal” and has significantly opposed them. Instead, it advocates building the Keystone XL pipeline, outlawing a carbon tax, and stopping all fracking regulations.

Donald Trump, the 45th and current President of the United States, has said that “climate change is a hoax invented by and for Chinese.” During his political campaign, he blamed China for doing little helping the environment on the earth, but he seemed to ignore many projects organized by China to slow global warming. While Trump's words might be counted as his campaign strategy to attract voters, it brought concerns from the left about environmental justice. 

From 2008 to 2017, the Republican Party went from "debating how to combat human-caused climate change to arguing that it does not exist," according to The New York Times. In 2011 "more than half of the Republicans in the House and three-quarters of Republican senators" said "that the threat of global warming, as a man-made and highly threatening phenomenon, is at best an exaggeration and at worst an utter “hoax”", according to Judith Warner writing The New York Times Magazine. In 2014, more than 55% of congressional Republicans were climate change deniers, according to NBC News. According to PolitiFact in May 2014, "...relatively few Republican members of Congress...accept the prevailing scientific conclusion that global warming is both real and man-made...eight out of 278, or about 3 percent." A 2017 study by the Center for American Progress Action Fund of climate change denial in the United States Congress found 180 members who deny the science behind climate change; all were Republicans.

The GOP does champion some energy initiatives following: opening up public lands and the ocean for further oil exploration; fast tracking permits for oil and gas wells; Hydraulic fracturing. It also supports dropping “restrictions to allow responsible development of nuclear energy.”

Green Party

The Green Party of the United States advocates for reductions of greenhouse gas emissions and increased government regulation.

In 2010 Platform on Climate Change, the Green Party leaders released their proposal to solve and integrate the problem and policy of climate change with six parts. First, Greens (the members of the Green Party) want a stronger international climate treaty to decrease greenhouse gases at least 40% by 2020 and 95% by 2050. Second, Greens advocate economic policies to create a safer atmosphere. The economic policies include setting carbon taxes on fossil fuels, removing subsidies for fossil fuels, nuclear power, biomass and waste incineration, and biofuels, and preventing corrupt actions from the rise of carbon prices. Third, countries with few contributions should pay for adaption to climate change. Fourth, Greens champion more efficient but low-cost public transportation system and less energy demand economy. Fifth, the government should train more workers to operate and develop the new, green energy economy. Last, Greens think necessary to transform commercial plants where have uncontrolled animal feeding operations and overuse of fossil fuel to health farms with organic practices.

Libertarian Party

In its 2016 platform, the Libertarian Party states that “competitive free markets and property rights stimulate the technological innovations and behavioral changes required to protect our environment and ecosystems.” The Libertarians believe the government has no rights or responsibilities to regulate and control the environmental issues. The environment and natural resources belong to the individuals and private corporations.

Constitution Party

The Constitution Party, in the 2014 Platform, states that "it is our responsibility to be prudent, productive, and efficient stewards of God's natural resources." On the issue of global warming, it says that "globalists are using the global warming threat to gain more control via worldwide sustainable development." According to the party, eminent domain is unlawful because "under no circumstances may the federal government take private property, by means of rules and regulations which preclude or substantially reduce the productive use of the property, even with just compensation."

In regards to energy, the party calls attention to "the continuing need of the United States for a sufficient supply of energy for national security and for the immediate adoption of a policy of free market solutions to achieve energy independence for the United States," and calls for the “repeal of federal environmental protections." The party also advocates the abolition of the Department of Energy.

Climate and environmental justice

Industrial air pollution
 
The Environmental Protection Agency defines Environmental justice as: “The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.” 

Many studies have shown that those people who are least responsible for causing the problem of climate change are also the most likely to suffer from its impacts. Poor and disempowered groups often do not have the resources to prepare for, cope with or recover from early climate disasters such as droughts, floods, heat waves, hurricanes, etc. This occurs not only within the United States but also between rich nations, who predominantly create the problem of climate change by dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and poor nations who have to deal more heavily with the consequences.

With the rapid acceleration of climate change in recent years, many grassroots movements have emerged to combat its impact. Spokespeople within these groups argue that universal access to a clean and healthy environment and access to critical natural resources are basic human rights.

Assessing the impact of climate justice movements on domestic and international government policies can be difficult as these movements tend to operate and participate outside the political arena. Global policy-making has not yet recognized the overarching principles (climate equity, inclusive participation, and human rights) of the movement. Instead, most of those key principles are beginning to emerge in the activity on non-governmental organizations.

Climate justice policy

State and regional policies

States and local governments are often tasked with defense against climate change affecting areas and peoples under state and local jurisdiction. Environmental justice issues are often first mediated at the state and local levels, and push to steer federal policy.

Mayors National Climate Action Agenda

The Mayors National Climate Action Agenda was founded by Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, former Houston mayor Annise Parker, and former Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter in 2014. The MNCAA aims to bring climate change policy into the hands of local government and to make federal climate change policies more accountable.

As a part of MNCAA, 75 mayors from across the United States, known as the "Climate Mayors", wrote to President Trump on March 28, 2017 in opposition to proposed rollbacks of several major climate change departments and initiatives. They maintain that the federal government should continue to build up climate change policies, stating "we are also standing up for our constituents and all Americans harmed by climate change, including those most vulnerable among us: coastal residents confronting erosion and sea level rise; young and old alike suffering from worsening air pollution and at risk during heatwaves; mountain residents engulfed by wildfires; farmers struggling at harvest time due to drought; and communities across our nation challenged by extreme weather."

United States Climate Alliance

The United States Climate Alliance is a group of states committed to meeting the Paris Agreement emissions targets despite President Trump's announced withdrawal from the agreement.

California

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (commonly known as AB 32) mandates a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. The Environmental Defense Fund and the Air Resources Board recruited staffers with environmental justice expertise as well as community leaders in order to appease environmental justice groups and ensure the safe passage of the bill.

The environmental justice groups who worked on AB 32 strongly opposed cap and trade programs being made mandatory. A cap and trade plan was put in place, and a 2016 study by a group of California academics found that carbon offsets under the plan were not used to benefit people in California who lived near power plants, who are mostly less well off than people who live far from them.

Pfizer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Public
Traded as
  • NYSEPFE
  • DJIA Component
  • S&P 100 Component
  • S&P 500 Component
IndustryPharmaceutical
Founded1849; 170 years ago
FoundersCharles Pfizer
Charles F. Erhart
Headquarters ,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Ian Read
(Executive Chairman)
Albert Bourla
(CEO)
RevenueDecrease US$52.546 billion (2017)
Increase US$13.620 billion (2017)
Increase US$21.308 billion (2017)
Total assetsIncrease US$171.797 billion (2017)
Total equityIncrease US$71.308 billion (2017)
Number of employees
96,500 (2016)
SubsidiariesAgouron Pharmaceuticals
G.D. Searle, LLC
Greenstone
Hospira
InnoPharma
Parke-Davis
Websitewww.pfizer.com

Pfizer Inc. (/ˈfzər/) is an American pharmaceutical corporation headquartered in New York City, with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut. It is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and its shares have been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 2004. Pfizer ranked No. 57 on the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

On December 19, 2018, Pfizer announced a joint merger of their consumer healthcare division with UK pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline, the British company will maintain a controlling share (listed at 68%).

The company develops and produces medicines and vaccines for a wide range of medical disciplines, including immunology, oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, and neurology. Its products include the blockbuster drug Lipitor (atorvastatin), used to lower LDL blood cholesterol; Lyrica (pregabalin) for neuropathic pain and fibromyalgia; Diflucan (fluconazole), an oral antifungal medication; Zithromax (azithromycin), an antibiotic; Viagra (sildenafil) for erectile dysfunction; and Celebrex (also Celebra, celecoxib), an anti-inflammatory drug.

In 2016, Pfizer Inc. was expected to merge with Allergan, Plc to create the Ireland-based "Pfizer plc" in a deal that would have been worth $160 billion. The merger was called off in April 2016, however, because of new rules from the United States Treasury against tax inversions, a method of avoiding taxes by merging with a foreign company. The company has made the second-largest pharmaceutical settlement with the United States Department of Justice.

History

Charles Pfizer
 
Pfizer was founded in 1849 by German-American Charles Pfizer and his cousin Charles F. Erhart from Ludwigsburg, Germany. They launched the chemicals business Charles Pfizer and Company from a building at the intersection of Harrison Avenue and Bartlett Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where they produced an antiparasitic called santonin. This was an immediate success, although it was the production of citric acid that really kick-started Pfizer's growth in the 1880s. Pfizer continued to buy property to expand its lab and factory on the block bounded by Bartlett Street, Harrison Avenue, Gerry Street, and Flushing Avenue. Pfizer's original administrative headquarters was at 81 Maiden Lane in Manhattan.

By 1906, sales totaled $3.4 million.

World War I caused a shortage of calcium citrate which Pfizer imported from Italy for the manufacture of citric acid, and the company began a search for an alternative supply. Pfizer chemists learned of a fungus that ferments sugar to citric acid, and they were able to commercialize production of citric acid from this source in 1919, and the company developed expertise in fermentation technology as a result. These skills were applied to the mass production of the antibiotic penicillin during World War II in response to the need to treat injured Allied soldiers; most of the penicillin that went ashore with the troops on D-Day was made by Pfizer.

Penicillin became very inexpensive in the 1940s, and Pfizer searched for new antibiotics with greater profit potential. They discovered Terramycin (oxytetracycline) in 1950, and this changed the company from a manufacturer of fine chemicals to a research-based pharmaceutical company. Pfizer developed a drug discovery program focusing on in vitro synthesis in order to augment its research in fermentation technology. The company also established an animal health division in 1959 with an 700-acre (2.8 km2) farm and research facility in Terre Haute, Indiana

By the 1950s, Pfizer had established offices in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom. In 1960, the company moved its medical research laboratory operations out of New York City to a new facility in Groton, Connecticut. In 1980, they launched Feldene (piroxicam), a prescription anti-inflammatory medication that became Pfizer's first product to reach one billion dollars in total sales. During the 1980s and 1990s, Pfizer Corporation growth was sustained by the discovery and marketing of Zoloft, Lipitor, Norvasc, Zithromax, Aricept, Diflucan, and Viagra.

2000–2010

In this decade, Pfizer grew by mergers, including those with Warner–Lambert (2000), Pharmacia (2003), and Wyeth (2009). 

In 2003, the company acquired Esperion Therapeutics for $1.3 billion (later selling the unit in 2008), protecting Lipitor from ETC-216. In 2004, Pfizer announced it would acquire Meridica for $125 million. In 2005, the company made a number of acquisitions: Vicuron Pharmaceuticals for $1.9 billion, Idun for just less than $300 million and finally Angiosyn for $527 million.

On June 26, 2006, Pfizer announced it would sell its Consumer Healthcare unit (manufacturer of Listerine, Nicorette, Visine, Sudafed and Neosporin) to Johnson & Johnson for $16.6 billion.

Development of torcetrapib, a drug that increases production of HDL, or "good cholesterol", which reduces LDL thought to be correlated to heart disease, was cancelled in December 2006. During a Phase III clinical trial involving 15,000 patients, more deaths occurred in the group that took the medicine than expected, and a sixty percent increase in mortality was seen among patients taking the combination of torcetrapib and Lipitor versus Lipitor alone. Lipitor alone was not implicated in the results, but Pfizer lost nearly $1 billion developing the failed drug and the market value of the company plummeted afterwards. The company also announced it would acquire Powermed and Rivax.

In September 2009, Pfizer pleaded guilty to the illegal marketing of the arthritis drug Bextra for uses unapproved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and agreed to a $2.3 billion settlement, the largest health care fraud settlement at that time.

A July 2010 article in BusinessWeek reported that Pfizer was seeing more success in its battle against makers of counterfeit prescription drugs by pursuing civil lawsuits rather than criminal prosecution. Pfizer has hired customs and narcotics experts from all over the globe to track down fakes and assemble evidence that can be used to pursue civil suits for trademark infringement. Since 2007, Pfizer has spent $3.3 million on investigations and legal fees and recovered about $5.1 million, with another $5 million tied up in ongoing cases.

On May 6, 2013, Pfizer told The Associated Press it would begin selling Viagra directly to patients via its website.

Warner–Lambert acquisition

Pfizer acquired Warner–Lambert in 2000 for $111.8 billion, at the time, created the second largest pharmaceutical company in the world. Warner–Lambert was founded as a Philadelphia drug store in 1856 by William R. Warner. Inventing a tablet-coating process gained Warner a place in the Smithsonian Institution. Parke–Davis was founded in Detroit in 1866 by Hervey Parke and George Davis. Warner–Lambert took over Parke–Davis in 1976, and acquired Wilkinson Sword in 1993 and Agouron Pharmaceuticals in 1999.

Pharmacia acquisition

In 2002, Pfizer merged with Pharmacia. The merger was again driven in part by the desire to acquire full rights to a product, this time Celebrex (celecoxib), the COX-2 selective inhibitor previously jointly marketed by Searle (acquired by Pharmacia) and Pfizer. In the ensuing years, Pfizer carried out a massive restructuring that resulted in numerous site closures and the loss of jobs including Terre Haute, Indiana; Holland, Michigan; Groton, Connecticut; Brooklyn, New York; Sandwich, UK; and Puerto Rico

Pharmacia had been formed by a series of mergers and acquisitions from its predecessors, including Searle, Upjohn and SUGEN

Searle was founded in Omaha, Nebraska, in April 1888. The founder was Gideon Daniel Searle. In 1908, the company was incorporated in Chicago, Illinois. In 1941, the company established headquarters in Skokie, Illinois. It was acquired by the Monsanto Company, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1985. 

The Upjohn Company was a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm founded in 1886 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, by Dr. William E. Upjohn, an 1875 graduate of the University of Michigan medical school. The company was originally formed to make friable pills, which were specifically designed to be easily digested. Greenstone was founded in 1993 by Upjohn as a generics division. In 1995, Upjohn merged with Pharmacia, to form Pharmacia & Upjohn. Pharmacia was created in April 2000 through the merger of Pharmacia & Upjohn with the Monsanto Company and its G.D. Searle unit. The merged company was based in Peapack, New Jersey. The agricultural division was spun off from Pharmacia, as Monsanto, in preparation for the close of the acquisition by Pfizer.

SUGEN, a company focused on protein kinase inhibitors, was founded in 1991 in Redwood City, California, and acquired by Pharmacia in 1999. The company pioneered the use of ATP-mimetic small molecules to block signal transduction. After the Pfizer merger, the SUGEN site was shut down in 2003, with the loss of over 300 jobs, and several programs were transferred to Pfizer. These included sunitinib (Sutent), which was approved for human use by the FDA in January 2006, passed $1 billion in annual revenues for Pfizer in 2010. A related compound, SU11654 (Toceranib), was also approved for canine tumors, and the ALK inhibitor Crizotinib also grew out of a SUGEN program.

In 2003, the new Pfizer made Greenstone (originally established as a division of Upjohn) its generic division, and its focus turned to selling authorized generics of Pfizer's products.

In 2008, Pfizer announced 275 job cuts at the Kalamazoo manufacturing facility. Kalamazoo was previously the world headquarters for the Upjohn Company.

Wyeth acquisition

On January 26, 2009, after more than a year of talks between the two companies, Pfizer agreed to buy pharmaceuticals rival Wyeth for a combined US$68 billion in cash, shares and loans, including some US$22.5 billion lent by five major Wall Street banks. The deal cemented Pfizer's position as the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, with the merged company generating over US$20 billion in cash each year, and was the largest corporate merger since AT&T and BellSouth's US$70 billion deal in March 2006. The combined company was expected to save US$4 billion annually through streamlining; however, as part of the deal, both companies must repatriate billions of dollars in revenue from foreign sources to the United States, which will result in higher tax costs. The acquisition was completed on October 15, 2009, making Wyeth a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer.

The merger was broadly criticized. Harvard Business School's Gary Pisano told The Wall Street Journal, "the record of big mergers and acquisitions in Big Pharma has just not been good. There's just been an enormous amount of shareholder wealth destroyed." Analysts said at the time, "The Warner–Lambert and Pharmacia mergers do not appear to have achieved gains for shareholders, so it is unclear who benefits from the Wyeth–Pfizer merger to many critics."

King Pharmaceuticals acquisition

In October 2010, Pfizer agreed to buy King Pharmaceuticals for $3.6 billion in cash or $14.25 per share: an approximately 40% premium over King's closing share price October 11, 2010.

2011–present

In February 2011, it was announced that Pfizer was to close its UK research and development facility (formerly also a manufacturing plant) in Sandwich, Kent, which at the time employed 2,400 people. However, as of 2014, Pfizer has a reduced presence at the site; it also has a UK research unit in Cambridge.

On September 4, 2012, the FDA approved a Pfizer pill for a rare type of leukemia. The medicine, called Bosulif, treats chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), a blood and bone marrow disease that usually affects older adults.

In July 2014, the company announced it would acquire Innopharma for $225 million, plus up to $135 million in milestone payments, in a deal that expanded Pfizer's range of generic and injectable drugs.

On January 5, 2015, the company announced it would acquire a controlling interest in Redvax for an undisclosed sum. This deal expanded the company's vaccine portfolio targeting human cytomegalovirus. In March 2015, the company announced it would restart its collaboration with Eli Lilly surrounding the phase III trial of Tanezumab. Pfizer is expected to receive an upfront sum of $200 million. In June 2015, the company acquired two meningitis drugs from GlaxoSmithKline—Nimenrix and Mencevax—for around $130 million, expanding the company's meningococcal disease portfolio of drugs.

In May 2016, the company announced it would acquire Anacor Pharmaceuticals for $5.2 billion, expanding the companies portfolio in both inflammation and immunology drugs areas. On their final trading day, Anacor shares traded for $99.20 each, giving Anacor a market capitalisation of $4.5 billion. In August, the company made a $40 million bid for the assets of the now bankrupt BIND Therapeutics through the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The same month, the company announced it would acquire Bamboo Therapeutics for $645 million, expanding the company's gene therapy offerings. Later, in August, the company announced the acquisition of cancer drug-maker - Medivation - for $14 billion. On Medivation's final day of trading, its shares were valued at $81.44 each, giving an effective market capitalisation of $13.52 billion. Two days later, Pfizer announced it would acquire AstraZenecas small-molecule antibiotics business for $1.575 billion merging it into its Essential Medicines business In the same month the company licensed the anti-CTLA4 monoclonal antibody, ONC-392, from OncoImmune.

Zoetis

Plans to spin out Zoetis, the Agriculture Division of Pfizer and later Pfizer Animal Health, were announced in 2012. Pfizer filed for registration of a Class A stock with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on August 13, 2012. Zoetis's IPO on February 1, 2013, sold 86.1 million shares for US$2.2 billion. Pfizer retained 414 million Class B shares, giving it an 83% controlling stake in the firm. The offering's lead underwriters were JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley. Most of the money raised through the IPO was used to pay off existing Pfizer debt.

Attempted AstraZeneca acquisition

In April 2014, it was reported that Pfizer had reignited a $100 billion takeover bid for the UK-based AstraZeneca, sparking political controversy in the UK, as well as in the US. On May 19, 2014, a "final offer" of £55 a share was rejected by the AstraZeneca board, which said the bid was too low and imposed too many risks. If successful, the takeover—the biggest in British history—would have made Pfizer the world's largest drug company. Hopes for a renewed bid later in the year were dashed when Pfizer signed a major cancer drug deal with Merck KGaA, selling its sharing rights to develop an experimental immunotherapy drug for a fee of $850 million.

Hospira

In February 2015, Pfizer and Hospira agreed that Pfizer would acquire Hospira for $15.2 billion, a deal in which Hospira shareholders would receive $90 in cash for each share they owned. News of the deal sent Hospira share prices up from $63.43 to $87.43 on a volume of 60.7 million shares. Including debt, the deal is valued at around $17 billion. Hospira is the largest producer of generic injectable pharmaceuticals in the world. On the final day of trading, Hospira shares traded for $89.96 each, giving a market capitalization of $15.56 billion.

Attempted Allergan acquisition

On November 23, 2015, Pfizer and Allergan, Plc announced their intention to merge for an approximate sum of $160 billion, making it the largest pharmaceutical deal ever, and the third largest corporate merger in history. As part of the deal, the Pfizer CEO, Ian Read, was to remain as CEO and chairman of the new company, to be called "Pfizer plc", with Allergan's CEO, Brent Saunders, becoming president and chief operating officer. As part of the deal, Allergan shareholders would receive 11.3 shares of the company, with Pfizer shareholders receiving one. The terms proposed that the merged company would maintain Allergan's Irish domicile, resulting in the new company being subject to corporation tax at the Irish rate of 12.5%--considerably lower than the 35% rate that Pfizer paid at the time. The deal was to constitute a reverse merger, whereby Allergan acquired Pfizer, with the new company then changing its name to "Pfizer, plc". The deal was expected to be completed in the second half of 2016, subject to certain conditions: US and EU approval, approval from both sets of shareholders, and the completion of Allergan's divestiture of its generics division to Teva Pharmaceuticals (expected in the first quarter of 2016). On April 6, 2016, Pfizer and Allergan announced they would be calling off the merger after the Obama administration introduced new laws intended to limit corporate tax inversions (the extent to which companies could move their headquarters overseas in order to reduce the amount of taxes they pay).

Pfizer Consumer Healthcare

In October 2017, reports emerged that Pfizer were undertaking a strategic review of their Consumer Healthcare division, with possible results ranging from a partial or complete spin-off or a direct sale with the divestment expected to raise in the region of $15 billion for one of the largest Over-the-Counter businesses in the world. Reckitt Benckiser expressed interest in bidding for the division earlier in October with Sanofi, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble and GlaxoSmithKline also being linked with bids for the business. On March 22, Reckitt Benckiser pulled out of the deal, a day later GlaxoSmithKline also pulled out.

In December 2018, GlaxoSmithKline announced that it, along with Pfizer, had reached an agreement to merge and combine their consumer healthcare divisions into a single entity. The combined entity would have sales of around £9.8 billon ($12.7 billion), with GSK maintaining a 68% controlling stake in the joint venture. Pfizer would own the remaining 32% shareholding. The deal builds on an earlier 2018 deal where GSK bought out Novartis' stake in the GSK-Novartis consumer healthcare joint business.

Operations

The headquarters of Pfizer Japan in Tokyo
 
Pfizer is organised into nine principal operating divisions: Primary Care, Specialty Care, Oncology, Emerging Markets, Established Products, Consumer Healthcare, Nutrition, Animal Health, and Capsugel.

Partnerships

In May 2015, Pfizer and a Bar-Ilan University laboratory announced a partnership based on the development of medical DNA nanotechnology.

Research and development

Pfizer's research and development activities are organised into two principal groups: the PharmaTherapeutics Research & Development Group, which focuses on the discovery of small molecules and related modalities; and the BioTherapeutics Research & Development Group, which focuses on large-molecule research, including vaccines. In 2007, Pfizer invested $8.1 billion in research and development, the largest R&D investment in the pharmaceutical industry.

Pfizer has R&D facilities in the following locations:
In 2007, Pfizer announced plans to close or sell the Loughbeg API facility, located at Loughbeg, Ringaskiddy, Cork, Ireland by mid to end of 2008. In 2007, Pfizer announced plans to completely close the Ann Arbor, Nagoya and Amboise Research facilities by the end of 2008, eliminating 2,160 jobs and idling the $300 million Michigan facility, which in recent years had seen expansion worth millions of dollars.

On June 18, 2007, Pfizer announced it would move the Animal Health Research (VMRD) division based in Sandwich, England, to Kalamazoo, Michigan. On February 1, 2011, Pfizer announced the closure of the Research and Development center in Sandwich, with the loss of 2,400 jobs. Pfizer subsequently announced it would be maintaining a significant presence at Sandwich, with around 650 staff continuing to be based at the site.

On September 1, 2011, Pfizer announced it had agreed to a 10-year lease of more than 180,000 square feet of research space from MIT in a building to be constructed just north of the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The space will house Pfizer's Cardiovascular, Metabolic and Endocrine Disease Research Unit and its Neuroscience Research Unit; Pfizer anticipated moving into the space once it was completed in late 2013.

As of 2013, products in Pfizer's development pipeline included dimebon and tanezumab

In 2018, Pfizer announced that it would end its work on research into treatments for Alzheimer's disease and Parkinsonism (a symptom of Parkinson's disease and other conditions). The company stated that approximately 300 researchers would lose their jobs as a result.

Management

The current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman of the Board is Ian Read.

Products

Pharmaceutical products

United States incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease before and after introduction of the 7-valent and 13-valent pneumococcal vaccines.
United States incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease before and after introduction of the 7-valent and 13-valent pneumococcal vaccines.
 
Key current and historical Pfizer products include:
  • Atorvastatin (trade name Lipitor), a statin for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia. Lipitor was developed by Pfizer legacy company Warner-Lambert and first marketed in 1996. Although atorvastatin was the fifth drug in the class of statins to be developed, clinical trials showed that atorvastatin caused a more dramatic reduction in LDL-C than the other statin drugs. From 1996 to 2012 under the trade name Lipitor, atorvastatin became the world's best-selling drug of all time, with more than $125 billion in sales over approximately 14.5 years. Lipitor alone "provided up to a quarter of Pfizer Inc.'s annual revenue for years."
  • Prevnar (13-valent conjugate pneumococcal vaccine) is a vaccine for the prevention of invasive pneumococcal infections. The introduction of the original, 7-valent version of the vaccine in 1999 led to a 75% reduction in the incidence of invasive pneumococcal infections among children under age 5 in the United States. An improved version of the vaccine, providing coverage of 13 bacterial variants, was introduced in early 2010. As of 2012 the rate of invasive infections among children under age 5 has been reduced by an additional 50%.
  • Norvasc (amlodipine), an antihypertensive drug of the dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker class. Amlodipine is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, a list of the most important medication needed in a basic health system.
  • Diflucan (fluconazole), the first orally available treatment for severe fungal infections. Fluconazole is recommended as a first-line treatment in invasive candidiasis and is widely used in the prophylaxis of severe fungal infections in premature infants. Fluconazole is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.
  • Zithromax (azithromycin), a macrolide antibiotic that is recommended by the Infectious Disease Society of America as a first line treatment for certain cases of community-acquired pneumonia.
  • Flagyl (metronidazole) is a nitroimidazole antibiotic medication used particularly for anaerobic bacteria and protozoa. It is antibacterial against anaerobic organisms, an amoebicide, and an antiprotozoal. It is the drug of choice for first episodes of mild-to-moderate Clostridium difficile infection. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.
Bottles of the antidepressant Zoloft
Xanax (alprazolam) 2 mg tri-score tablets
 
In addition to marketing branded pharmaceuticals, Pfizer is involved in the manufacture and sale of generics. In the US it does this through its Greenstone subsidiary, which it acquired as part of the acquisition of Pharmacia. Pfizer also has a licensing deal in place with Aurobindo, which grants the former access to a variety of oral solid generic products.

ChapStick

Promotional practices

Access to Wyeth internal documents has revealed marketing strategies used to promote Neurontin for off-label use. In 1993, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved gabapentin (Neurontin, Pfizer) only for treatment of seizures. Warner–Lambert, which merged with Pfizer in 2000, used activities not usually associated with sales promotion, including continuing medical education and research, sponsored articles about the drug for the medical literature, and alleged suppression of unfavorable study results, to promote gabapentin. Within 5 years the drug was being widely used for the off-label treatment of pain and psychiatric conditions. Warner–Lambert admitted to charges that it violated FDA regulations by promoting the drug for pain, psychiatric conditions, migraine, and other unapproved uses, and paid $430 million to resolve criminal and civil health care liability charges. A recent Cochrane review concluded that gabapentin is ineffective in migraine prophylaxis. The American Academy of Neurology rates it as having unproven efficacy, while the Canadian Headache Society and the European Federation of Neurological Societies rate its use as being supported by moderate and low-quality evidence, respectively.

In September 2009, Pfizer agreed to pay $2.3 billion to settle civil and criminal allegations that it had illegally marketed four drugs—Bextra, Geodon, Zyvox, and Lyrica—for non-approved uses; it was Pfizer's fourth such settlement in a decade. The payment included $1.3 billion in criminal penalties for felony violations of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and $1 billion to settle allegations it had illegally promoted the drugs for uses that were not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and caused false claims to be submitted to Federal and State programs. The criminal fine was the largest ever assessed in the United States up to that time. Pfizer has entered an extensive corporate integrity agreement with the Office of Inspector General and will be required to make substantial structural reforms within the company, and maintain the Pfizer website (www.pfizer.com/pmc) to track the company's post marketing commitments. Pfizer had to also put a searchable database of all payments to physicians the company had made on the Pfizer website by March 31, 2010.

Peter Rost was vice president in charge of the endocrinology division at Pharmacia before and during its acquisition by Pfizer. During that time he raised concerns internally about kickbacks and off-label marketing of Genotropin, Pharmacia's human growth hormone drug. Pfizer reported the Pharmacia marketing practices to the FDA and Department of Justice; Rost was unaware of this and filed an FCA lawsuit against Pfizer. Pfizer kept him on, but isolated him until the FCA suit was unsealed in 2005. The Justice Department declined to intervene, and Pfizer fired him, and he filed a wrongful termination suit against Pfizer. Pfizer won a summary dismissal of the case, with the court ruling that the evidence showed Pfizer had decided to fire Rost prior to learning of his whistleblower activities.

A "whistleblower suit" was filed in 2005 against Wyeth, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2009, alleging that the company illegally marketed their drug Rapamune. Wyeth is targeted in the suit for off-label marketing, targeting specific doctors and medical facilities to increase sales of Rapamune, trying to get current transplant patients to change from their current transplant drugs to Rapamune and for specifically targeting African-Americans. According to the whistleblowers, Wyeth also provided doctors and hospitals with kickbacks to prescribe the drug in the form of grants, donations and other money. In 2013, the company pleaded guilty to criminal mis-branding violations under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. By August 2014 it had paid $491 million in civil and criminal penalties.

According to Harper's Magazine publisher John MacArthur, Pfizer withdrew "between $400,000 and a million dollars" worth of ads from their magazine following an unflattering article on depression medication.

Litigation

Pfizer is party to a number of lawsuits stemming from its pharmaceutical products as well as the practices of various companies it has merged with or acquired.

Quigley Co.

Pfizer acquired Quigley in 1968, and the division sold asbestos-containing insulation products until the early 1970s. Asbestos victims and Pfizer have been negotiating a settlement deal that calls for Pfizer to pay $430 million to 80 percent of existing plaintiffs. It will also place an additional $535 million into an asbestos settlement trust that will compensate future plaintiffs as well as the remaining 20 percent of current plaintiffs with claims against Pfizer and Quigley. The compensation deal is worth $965 million all up. Of that $535 million, $405 million is in a 40-year note from Pfizer, while $100 million will come from insurance policies.

Bjork–Shiley heart valve

Pfizer purchased Shiley in 1979 at the onset of its Convexo-Concave valve ordeal, involving the Bjork–Shiley heart valve. Approximately 500 people died when defective valves failed and, in 1994, the United States ruled against Pfizer for ~$200 million.

Abdullahi v. Pfizer, Inc.

In 1996, an outbreak of measles, cholera, and bacterial meningitis occurred in Nigeria. Pfizer representatives traveled to Kano, Nigeria to administer an experimental antibiotic, trovafloxacin, to approximately 200 children. Local Kano officials report that more than 50 children died in the experiment, while many others developed mental and physical deformities. The nature and frequency of both fatalities and other adverse outcomes were similar to those historically found among pediatric patients treated for meningitis in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2001, families of the children, as well as the governments of Kano and Nigeria, filed lawsuits regarding the treatment. According to the news program Democracy Now!, "[r]esearchers did not obtain signed consent forms, and medical personnel said Pfizer did not tell parents their children were getting the experimental drug." The lawsuits also accuse Pfizer of using the outbreak to perform unapproved human testing, as well as allegedly under-dosing a control group being treated with traditional antibiotics in order to skew the results of the trial in favor of Trovan. While the specific facts of the case remain in dispute, both Nigerian medical personnel and at least one Pfizer physician have stated that the trial was conducted without regulatory approval.

In 2007, Pfizer published a Statement of Defense letter. The letter states that the drug's oral form was safer and easier to administer, that Trovan had been used safely in over 5000 Americans prior to the Nigerian trial, that mortality in the patients treated by Pfizer was lower than that observed historically in African meningitis epidemics, and that no unusual side effects, unrelated to meningitis, were observed after 4 weeks. 

In June 2010, the US Supreme Court rejected Pfizer's appeal against a ruling allowing lawsuits by the Nigerian families to proceed.

In December 2010, WikiLeaks released US diplomatic cables, which indicate that Pfizer had hired investigators to find evidence of corruption against Nigerian attorney general Aondoakaa to persuade him to drop legal action. Washington Post reporter Joe Stephens, who helped break the story in 2000, called these actions "dangerously close to blackmail." In response, the company has released a press statement describing the allegations as "preposterous" and stating that they acted in good faith. Aondoakka, who had allegedly demanded bribes from Pfizer in return for a settlement of the case, was declared unfit for office and had his U.S. visa revoked in association with corruption charges in 2010.

Retrovirus lawsuit

A scientist claims she was infected by a genetically modified virus while working for Pfizer. In her federal lawsuit she says she has been intermittently paralyzed by the Pfizer-designed virus. "McClain, of Deep River, suspects she was inadvertently exposed, through work by a former Pfizer colleague in 2002 or 2003, to an engineered form of the lentivirus, a virus similar to the one that can lead to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, also known as AIDS." The court found that McClain failed to demonstrate that her illness was caused by exposure to the lentivirus, but also that Pfizer violated whistleblower laws.

Blue Cross Blue Shield

Health insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) filed a lawsuit against Pfizer for reportedly illegally marketing their drugs Bextra, Geodon and Lyrica. BCBS is reporting that Pfizer used "kickbacks" and wrongly persuaded doctors to prescribe the drugs. FiercePharma reported that "According to the suit, the drug maker not only handed out those "misleading" materials on off-label uses, but sent doctors on Caribbean junkets and paid them $2,000 honoraria in return for their listening to lectures about Bextra. More than 5,000 healthcare professionals were entertained at meetings in Bahamas, Virgin Islands, and across the U.S., the suit alleges." The case was settled in 2014 for $325M.

Brigham Young University

Controversy arose over the drug "Celebrex". Brigham Young University (BYU) said that a professor of chemistry, Dr. Daniel L. Simmons, discovered an enzyme in the 1990s that would later lead towards the development of Celebrex. BYU was originally seeking 15% royalty on sales, which would equate to $9.7 billion. The court filings show that a research agreement was made with Monsanto, whose pharmaceutical business was later acquired by Pfizer, to develop a better aspirin. The enzyme that Dr. Simmons claims to have discovered would induce pain and inflammation while causing gastrointestinal problems, which Celebrex is used to reduce those issues. A battle ensued, lasting over six years, because BYU claimed that Pfizer did not give him credit or compensation while Pfizer claims it had met all obligations regarding the Monsanto agreement. This culminated in a $450 million amicable settlement without going to trial. Pfizer said it would take a $450 million charge against first quarter earnings to settle.

Litigation in which Pfizer was not a party

Pfizer was discussed as part of the Kelo v. New London case that was decided by U.S. Supreme Court in 2005. In February 1998 Pfzer announced it would build a research facility in New London, Connecticut, and local planners, hoping to promote economic development and build on the influx of jobs the planned facility would bring to the town, created a plan that included seizing property to redevelop it under eminent domain, and local residents sued to stop the seizure. The case went to the Supreme Court, and with regard to Pfizer, the court cited a prior decision that said: "The record clearly demonstrates that the development plan was not intended to serve the interests of Pfizer, Inc., or any other private entity, but rather, to revitalize the local economy by creating temporary and permanent jobs, generating a significant increase in tax revenue, encouraging spin-off economic activities and maximizing public access to the waterfront”. The Supreme Court allowed the eminent domain to proceed. Pfizer opened the facility in 2001 but abandoned it in 2009, angering residents of the town.

Environmental record

Between 2002 and 2008, Pfizer reduced its greenhouse emissions by 20%, and committed to reducing emissions by an additional 20% by 2012. In 2012 the company was named to the Carbon Disclosure Project's Carbon Leadership Index in recognition of its efforts to reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Pfizer has inherited Wyeth's liabilities in the American Cyanamid site in Bridgewater, New Jersey. This site is highly toxic and an EPA declared Superfund site. Pfizer has since attempted to remediate this land in order to clean and develop it for future profits and potential public uses. The Sierra Club and the Edison Wetlands Association have come out in opposition to the cleanup plan, arguing that the area is subject to flooding, which could cause pollutants to leach. The EPA considers the plan the most reasonable from considerations of safety and cost-effectiveness, arguing that an alternative plan involving trucking contaminated soil off site could expose cleanup workers. The EPA's position is backed by the environmental watchdog group CRISIS.

In June 2002, a chemical explosion at the Groton plant injured seven people and caused the evacuation of over 100 homes in the surrounding area.

Political lobbying

Pfizer is a leading member of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a Washington D.C.-based coalition of over 400 major companies and NGOs that advocates for a larger International Affairs Budget, which funds American diplomatic, humanitarian, and development efforts abroad.

Pfizer is one of the single largest lobbying interests in United States politics. For example, in the first 9 months of 2009 Pfizer spent over $16.3 million on lobbying US congressional lawmakers, making them the sixth largest lobbying interest in the US (following Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which ranked fourth but also represents many of their interests). A spokeswoman for Pfizer said the company “wanted to make sure our voice is heard in this conversation” in regards to the company's expenditure of $25 million in 2010 to lobby health care reform.

According to U.S. State Department cables released by the whistleblower site WikiLeaks, Pfizer "lobbied against New Zealand getting a free trade agreement with the United States because it objected to New Zealand's restrictive drug buying rules and tried to get rid of New Zealand's former health minister, Helen Clark, in 1990.

Employment and diversity

Since 2004, Pfizer has received a 100% rating every year on the Corporate Equality Index, released by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation

In 2012, Pfizer's Canadian division, which then employed 2,890 people, was named one of Montreal's Top 15 Employers, the only research-based pharmaceutical company to receive this honor.

Involvement in developing world health issues

Pfizer makes the anti-fungal drug fluconazole available free of charge to governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in developing countries with a greater than 1% prevalence of HIV/AIDS. The company has also pledged to provide up to 740 million doses of its anti-pneumococcal vaccine at discounted rates to infants and young children in 41 developing countries in association with the GAVI Alliance.

In 2012, Pfizer and the Gates Foundation announced a joint effort to provide affordable access to Pfizer's long-lasting injectable contraceptive, medroxyprogesterone acetate, to three million women in developing countries.

Gene

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene Chromosome ...