Pfizer appeals to UK prime minister
pharmafile | May 6, 2014 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Sales and Marketing | AstraZeneca, Cameron, Pfizer, merger, research
Pfizer has attempted to enlist the help of UK prime minister David Cameron in its campaign to buy AstraZeneca, offering what it calls a “series of significant and tangible commitments”.
The US pharma giant has sent a letter to Cameron outlining that it would complete AstraZeneca’s planned R&D hub in Cambridge and “retain 20% of the combined company’s total R&D workforce in the UK going forward”.
Pfizer has upped its offer to £50 per AstraZeneca share, but is aware that serious concerns have been expressed over the UK’s research base if the deal goes through.
It is pulling out the stops to allay those fears – which could be strong enough to scupper any deal – and says it also commits to establishing the combined company’s corporate and tax residence in England.
However, Labour leader Ed Miliband has already questioned Pfizer’s ‘track record’ in the UK: the company was hauled in front of a House of Commons committee in 2011 after its decision to axe its own main European R&D site in Sandwich, Kent with the result of hundreds of job cuts.
This is why Pfizer chairman Ian Read acknowledged to Cameron: “We recognise that our approach may create uncertainty for the UK government and scientific community, given the strategic importance of life sciences to the government’s industrial strategy and the significance of the transaction.”
To this end, Pfizer has also said it will also retain ‘substantial’ commercial manufacturing facilities at Macclesfield, and make the combined company’s European business and regulatory HQs in the UK.
Read says Pfizer’s commitments to Cameron will hold “for a minimum of five years” – although Miliband does not think this cuts the mustard, saying: “It is not enough to have a few specific promises that only last for the next few years.”
But Cameron has already signalled that he is taking the bid very seriously, with the Financial Times reporting that he has appointed two of his most trusted and senior officials to lead government negotiations with the US drugmaker.
Sir Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary and his close personal adviser John Kingman from the Treasury, are co-ordinating the response on behalf of the prime minister.
This has led to accusations by Miliband that the government is ‘cheerleading’ for Pfizer without seriously considering whether it is in the UK’s national economic interest.
“In this particular bid the stakes could not be much higher,” Miliband wrote in his own letter to Cameron. “Pfizer’s bid for AstraZeneca affects one of the UK’s most significant investors in R&D, a major contributor to our science base, and 6,700 high quality jobs in the UK.”
Despite this, Miliband says: “The impression created in recent days has been of a government cheerleading for this deal on the basis of a short letter with inadequate assurances.”
Adam Hill
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