Pfizer is closing a research and development site in the UK at Sandwich, Kent, notes In the Pipeline's Derek Lowe. About 2,400 people work at the site and Pfizer says that it hopes to transfer a few those positions to other sites. "Although the company says that perhaps several hundred may find positions elsewhere, this is a major blow to drug discovery operations in the UK," Lowe says. The BBC adds that Pfizer manufacturing operations in Sandwich were shuttered in 2007.
The BBC also says that the closing is part of Pfizer's reorganization of its R&D operations and Ed Silverman at Pharmalot adds that, in the US, Pfizer is moving some of its R&D operations from Groton, Connecticut, to Cambridge, Massachusetts.