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Founders' Brooklyn Beginning
- Charles Pfizer and his cousin Charles Erhart arrived from Germany in 1848 and set up a chemical shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 1849.
- They combined pharmaceutical chemistry with confectionery skills to make palatable medicines like almond-toffee santonin worm lozenges.
Symptom-Focused Medicine Created Markets
- Mid-19th-century medicine focused on treating symptoms rather than causes, creating demand for patent remedies.
- Pfizer pivoted from candy-like worm cures to producing bulk chemicals used by other manufacturers.
Worm Lozenges Fund Expansion
- Pfizer's first hit product was santonin made from wormseed, sold as flavored candy cones for children.
- The worm lozenges' success funded expansion into iodines, borax, camphor and chemical manufacturing.