Pfizer acquired Warner-Lambert in 2000 after the companies’ partnership around Lipitor.
Warner-Lambert and Pfizer had jointly developed and marketed atorvastatin, sold as Lipitor. When Lipitor became extraordinarily successful, Pfizer pursued control of the product and announced an agreement to acquire Warner-Lambert in November 1999. The transaction was completed in June 2000.
The acquisition gave Pfizer full ownership of Lipitor and added Warner-Lambert’s pharmaceutical portfolio and consumer-health businesses. Lipitor later became one of the best-selling prescription medicines in history, generating tens of billions of dollars in sales before generic competition expanded.
This deal is sometimes confused with Pfizer’s 2003 acquisition of Pharmacia or its 2009 merger with Wyeth. Warner-Lambert was not merged into a newly named company; Pfizer was the surviving corporate name.