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CONSOLIDATION
Pfizer, now the world's largest drug company after its purchase of Pharmacia, has begun an R&D reorganization that will likely lead to job cuts. The company, with 25 R&D sites, has decided that it will not conduct R&D in any therapeutic area at more than two locations. Because of the required shuffling of staff, Pfizer is not yet providing figures on job cuts among its 130,000 employees. Both companies froze hiring for 10 months before the merger to accommodate some job changes. R&D will be headquartered at Pfizer's two Connecticut sites, where about 6,200 researchers work. However, veterinary medicine and inflammatory disease R&D will be moved from these sites to Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor, Mich., respectively. Facilities in Skokie, Ill.; South San Francisco; and Fresnes, France, employing a total of about 2,000 people, will be closed. Pharmacia's Kalamazoo location--home to about 2,000 employees in R&D and about 3,500 people at what is now Pfizer's largest manufacturing operation--will remain a key site, a company spokesman says. It will become the company's global center for drug safety evaluation and pharmaceutical sciences. However, the location will see job cuts as discovery research and medical development functions move elsewhere. Pfizer has about 2,500 employees in Ann Arbor, where exploratory and development work will expand. The site will focus on antibacterial, central nervous system disease, inflammation, and cardiovascular R&D, while cancer research will move to La Jolla, Calif., or Groton, Conn. "We simply can't add Pharmacia to Pfizer," CEO Henry A. McKinnell Jr. told shareholders just over a week ago. The company, which expects $2.5 billion in merger-related savings by 2005, hasn't yet said what it will spend on R&D this year. In 2002, Pfizer spent $5.18 billion, while Pharmacia spent $2.36 billion. |
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