Pfizer is to close its facility in Sandwich, Kent, as it drops its R&D spend by up to two billion dollars over the next two years.
Sandwich is Pfizer’s main site in the UK and one of the country’s largest research centres. The company notes that four of its top ten drugs were discovered there, including Viagra. The closure will cost the majority of the site’s 2,400 employees their jobs and leave just 3,000 Pfizer employees in the whole of the UK.
“It is with a deep sense of sadness that we announce our proposal to exit our site in Sandwich, Kent. It has played an important role in the discovery and development of medicines and has brought many life-saving treatments to patients,” said Ruth McKernan, senior vice president and site head, in a statement. “Sandwich has an extremely talented workforce with a proud and rich history in science research and development.”
In its annual results for 2010 the company notes that its R&D expenditure for 2012 is expected to be between $6.5bn and $7.0bn, down from its previous target of somewhere between $8bn and $8.5bn. Disease areas being ditched by the company include allergy and respiratory diseases, which are based at Sandwich.
Vince Cable, the UK’s business secretary, described the site closure as “extremely disappointing”. In addition he stressed that, “the company has been clear that this decision was part of its global programme of change and not based on a judgement of the UK as a location for pharmaceutical research”.
UK governments have repeatedly been warned that the country is perceived as unfavourable to medical research, most recently by the Academy of Medical Sciences (see: UK health research to be rehabilitated).
McKernan confirmed the exit from Sandwich was “no reflection” on either the site or the operating environment in the UK. The company will be expanding its Cambridge, Massachusetts base, but this will be scant comfort to researchers in Kent.
Pfizer could not confirm how many of the 2,400 staff currently employed at Sandwich are researchers but previous figures it has released show the vast majority of the people based there are scientists.
UPDATE
AP and others are also now reporting that Pfizer is slashing 1,100 jobs from its site in Groton, Connecticut.