Another Look at Pfizer's Recent Moves

Pharmaconduct.org has another look at Pfizer's (PFE) announcement Monday, and tries to address some of the many unanswered questions left open by the company's press release. One thing that struck me (and many others) is that the company talked about "moving a number of functions" from sites like St. Louis and Collegeville, but did not come right out and say that they were closing. I understand that there's more than R&D that goes on in these places, but it still seems as if these moves will leave a lot of empty hallways, which you wouldn't think is the optimum solution.

A topic of local discussion has been the two Cambridge sites the new company has, and you can argue that one either way, too. "They do different things, and both of them should stay" goes up against "Why would you have two research sites in the same town if you didn't need to?" Monday's release was silent on this question, too.

Eric at Pharmaconduct has gone so far as to put together a database of Pfizer's moves over the last few years, in an attempt to figure out what they're up to. I wish him luck, and I'll follow the success of this effort with interest. I'm not sure if the company's behavior is subject to this kind of field-zoologist approach, but perhaps it is. At any rate, people with information to contribute can help him find out.