Pfizer's history 1949-55

Pfizer at Folkestone

Pfizer made its reputation in America as a bulk chemical manufacturer and enjoyed early success in mass-producing penicillin. However, it was the discovery of a broad-spectrum anti-biotic Terramycin (oxytetracycline) in 1949 that transformed Pfizer into an international pharmaceutical company.

To meet Birish Government regulations on the importation of medicines, Pfizer established a new compounding operation in Folkstone, Kent, to convert the base compound, imported from America, into a medicine ready to be provided to UK patients.

This new Folkstone facility was opened in the Autumn of 1952.

Pfizer at Sandwich

The British Government of the time restricted the bulk importation of medical materials, and restricted the sale of products not fully manufactured in Britain.

So Pfizer investigated establishing a larger operation in the UK. In 1954, after hearing a sermon themed `Do it yourself' at a London church, Pfizer Senior Vice-President John Davenport decided to began searching for a site near Folkstone.

He found an 80 acre site of low-lying ground, roofless buildings, overgrown railway tracks and rusting dock installations on the River Stour - and it seemed an ideal location. Although derelict at the time, it was believed to have had a busy past. Reported to have been part of the historic Saxon port of Stonar, later becoming a twentieth century junction for trains, tugboats and barges known as Sandwich Haven, and later as Richborough Port.

The site is now Pfizer's Research & Development facility in Sandwich, Kent.