Pfizer's Restructuring Still Leaves Employees in the Dark

So, Pfizer (PFE): it seems as if they’ve been going on about cutting their research staff for months now. Well, it has been months, and the whole thing is turning into a rather bitter joke for people in Groton, from what I can tell. This current wave of restructuring has been rumbling along since back in the summer, and they told people about the layoffs in the fall. How long is all this going to take?

The latest announcement from the higher layers is that the company will announce its plans “sometime in January”. Lee Howard, a reporter at the New London paper The Day, has a copy of a letter from Pfizer’s Rod MacKenzie (head of discovery research worldwide) to employees, saying that because the changes in research are so complex, he won’t be able to communicate them by the end of the year. I’m not sure if the letter includes his greetings for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year; maybe that one will arrive in time for Valentine’s Day. Here's the article, the comments to which erupt in a lot of vituperative town-vs.-gown New London crossfire.

From what I’m hearing, the coming changes are going to be quite profound in chemistry. Pfizer seems to be dividing its chemists up into people who think up molecules, and people who make them, with no real overlap. You’re probably thinking sure, that’s how the Germans and the Swiss tend to do it, the PhDs in the offices and the BS/MS folks out at the hood. But apparently there are PhDs on the “make the molecules” side in Pfizer’s new scheme, although I think the “design the molecules” side will have no one who isn’t. At any rate, the traditional medicinal chemist, someone who has an idea for a new molecule and then goes out to the lab and makes it, will seemingly have no place at Pfizer. You do one, or you do the other.

And I’ve heard from several sources that major outsourcing will be a big part of the new system as well. The “drug designers” will also be resource managers, spending their time figuring out what compounds and series to ship over to China, and what to have the local groups work on. As readers here well know, I think that outsourcing definitely has its place, but Pfizer seems to be going even further down that road than the rest of the industry – how well that’s going to work is an open question. A lot of the outsourcing work I’ve seen over the years has been. . .OK. Used judiciously, that’s fine, but I don’t know if I’d want to base whole programs on it if I didn’t have to.

I think it’s safe to say that morale and productivity in the labs in Groton must be drooping a bit these days. How could it not be, with everyone waiting for months to see who’s going to be let go, and in this economic climate? I understand that it’s a big organization, and that figuring out what to do is a complicated job. I certainly wouldn’t want it. But the way this is being done has not reflected well on the company’s management and how it treats its employees. But we’ll just have to add this one to the existing lists in both categories...

Comments

[justice41:]

I think it not very smart to outsource research to either China, India and many other countries where intellectual property including patents are not protected. In fact some government encourage the theft of such property. In addition, firms engaging in research should be very careful about using such persons here in the USA.

2008 Dec 11 02:27 PM

[User 317846:]

I would agree, sending areas of medicinal chemistry is a very big threat to the very existance of the Pharma Industry and its IP. Here is the problem, it is very easy to identify what target class the molecule belongs to once you make a series of analogs. Once you get that, you just need to figure out what targets the company works on. Kaboom, there you go. For smaller companies that is a bigger threat since they work on only few target areas and stand to loose their IP to a bigger extent. So smaller biotech's beware!!!!!!!!
Also, a lot of these company employee can easily change companies and pass on your IP for a high paying job.

2008 Dec 11 06:34 PM

[Victhom:]

Pfizer should do some outsourcing...but keep close to it's chest....the best cards.....in Groton...England...etc... PFIZER should be extra carefull in Asia and India....

2008 Dec 12 12:35 AM

[ex-chem:]

Sounds almost identical to the "DPU" model being implemented at Glaxo. Hope for the research folk at Pfizer that the cuts are not as deep as at Glaxo (60-70%). I was one of the lucky ones-older, and well "packaged" for retirement!

2008 Dec 15 11:31 AM