Feeding the Beast

A Wall Street Journal article reports that Pfizer is talking about acquiring rival Wyeth for $68 billion in the largest pharmaceutical deal in nearly a decade. The blogosphere is abuzz, mostly with negative feedback. Derek Lowe has written two posts, one at In the Pipeline and another at The Atlantic's blog. With its patent on Lipitor running out soon, Pfizer will have to be quick to get some new drugs in the pipeline. Hence, the latest buyout -- a recurring pattern, Lowe says. "So the fear, among scientists like me, is that Pfizer is going to take another productive research organization, raid it for what it considers to be of immediate value, fire a lot of people, and then take the rest and do whatever it is they do to them to Pfizerize their productivity. And then in a few years, they'll do it again."