SET TO GROW Pfizer will add 600 jobs and several new labs to its Ann Arbor research complex.

The agreement is a big boost to the state's Life Sciences Corridor--a government-supported effort directed by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. to promote health-related businesses in concert with state research institutions (C&EN, Oct. 1, page 31). The Pfizer deal calls for state and local authori-ties to forgo nearly $85 million in tax revenues over the next seven years.

The tax abatement--along with the University of Michigan's agreement to sell Pfizer a 52-acre parcel of land for $27 million--secured the deal for Michigan instead of Pfizer's alternative, a research site in New London, Conn.

David Canter, director of Pfizer's Ann Arbor laboratories, the former Warner-Lambert facility where the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor was developed, says the existing 92-acre site is already "fully built out." Hundreds of the lab's 2,500 employees must work at satellite sites "strung out in labs like the Florida Keys," away from the main site.

The university land, adjacent to Pfizer's main site, is "perfect for our needs," he says. It would make possible greater and "more productive" research in specialties such as cancer and cardiovascular, psychological, and arthritic disorders.

Despite some grumbles among Ann Arbor legislators about corporate blackmail and corporate welfare, the deal adds significant heft to the Life Sciences Corridor concept. University of Michigan President Lee C. Bollinger says the school anticipates not only new collaborations with Pfizer scientists, but also "career opportunities for our graduates and technology transfer initiatives benefiting the state's economy."

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