Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is closing its Kent facility of research and development in order to save costs. Depsite revenues for Pfizer rising by 6% in these trouble times, the new CEO felt it necessary to cut back on research and development and he plans to cut the budget by up to $3Billion. MPs are now worried for local jobs and the wider business effects on the UK of this decision, since this decision will knock 2,400 people out of employment.

Last month David Cameron said that he had “personally been on the phone to some of the biggest pharmaceutical companies, like Amgen, like Pfizer” to encourage them to invest and grow. This seemed like excellent news at the time, because a growth in the pharmaceutics industry would be excellent for our field and excellent for Pharmacy. Unfortunately the exact opposite seems to be happening.

The Real Problem

Politicians are showing concern for loss of jobs and business, but these issues are only secondary to the glaringly obvious problem which we now face. The research and development facility which has been in Sandwich, Kent, for over sixty years is closing down and hence will now be less involved in research and development.

That’s the problem!

Ian Read, the new CEO, plans to cut research and development costs by upto $3Billion! While everyone keeps thinking about jobs and crying on the loss of business, am I the only one who is worried about the lack of research and development?

If research and development are cut back, new drugs will no longer be developed and existing drugs will not be improved. The soul of Pzier as a  pharmaceutics giant will vanish and how long will Pfizer last? The responsibility of research and development will fall on to Sanofi, GSK and the other giants.

Of course there may be an advantage here. Since Pfizer has such a large stake of pharmaceutical industry in terms of research and development, this may leave a vacuum for smaller companies to mop up to their advantage. If this were to happen, this would obviously be great for the industry because the large pharmaceutical companies will in turn have less control of the market and more competition. More competition would drive all the companies in research and development to compete in order to achieve new and better drugs and dosage forms.

Still, it is worrying to see the facility where Viagra was born closing down. The Kent facility was obviously doing something right in its prime to have developed many world changing drugs such as Viagra and Maraviroc.

Conclusion

There is already existing pressure on politicians to encourage business and jobs for local populations. There seems to be a lack of interest in the fact that a research and development facility of a major pharmaceutical company has closed down. Politicians need to realise that research and development is as important as jobs and business, hence need to encourage fair competition for all other companies, so we don’t see a repeat of this close down.

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