Monday, January 22, 2007

Pfizer CEO Jeffery Kindler has announced that 2,410 jobs will be cut in Michigan, taking out three plants in the state. Pfizer has also announced that they will cut a total of 10 000 jobs by next year. The Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, and Plymouth sites are representatives of the world’s largest drug manufacturing company.

A portion of these jobs will be reassigned in Pfizer plants in cities such as La Jolla, CA, Groton, CT, and Sandwich in the United Kingdom. These cuts come after Pfizer’s newest drug in development, torcetrapib, was scrapped late last year due to unexpected side effects.

The money spent researching the drug Torcetrapib ended with the loss of millions of dollars. This comes as a bigger blow to the region when coupled with ongoing losses to major car manufacturers in the Detroit area, and Gov. Jennifer Granholm said today, “We’re going to have a whole ‘Stick Around Ann Arbor’ campaign for these employees, because we want them to stay here.”

Among the other groups affected are Ann Arbor schools, to whom Pfizer pays millions of dollars, and local businesses. Most employees declined comment, as they are being asked by Pfizer not to talk with the media.