Pressure mounts on Pfizer and government over UK R&D closure
pharmafile | February 7, 2011 | News story | Research and Development | Kent, Pfizer, Sandwich, Science and Technology Select Committee
The political fallout over Pfizer’s decision to close its Kent R&D base continues apace, with the House of Commons to demand answers from the company and the government.
The Science and Technology Select Committee is to call Pfizer representatives and government minister David Willetts to give oral evidence about the closure, which will lead to the loss of around 2,400 jobs.
No time has been set for the session, but committee chair Andrew Miller says there are “urgent questions that need answering”.
“It is not only a cruel blow for the Pfizer employees – many are highly skilled – but it also raises questions about UK plc’s ability to use science to drive the economy,” he goes on.
“Life sciences have been identified by both this and the last government as a priority in the UK,” Miller continues. “Pfizer’s announcement…is deeply worrying.”
Universities and science minister Willetts had suggested the government would attempt to salvage the situation by turning the Sandwhich, Kent site into a new life sciences park, afer Pfizer’s 2013 exit.
Meanwhile, the ABPI has backed the UK as a destination for science research, praising the government’s recent creation of a Patent Box, which reduces tax rates for pharma, and saying it would “further strengthen the UK’s position.
However, Labour’s shadow business secretary John Denhan said the US giant “clearly didn’t feel this was a country that they had to be in”.
European Union research and innovation commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, due to meet Willetts today for talks, appears to agree with Denham.
In an interview with the Financial Times, she says the Pfizer move is a “wake-up call” to policymakers and warns that research investment in other EU states has risen “while at the same time that same increase in investment is not happening in the UK”.
“We have China breathing down our necks [in the EU] – we have the US far ahead of us,” she adds. “I think it’s disappointing … that what is being done in France and Germany is not being replicated in the UK.”
The EU’s latest annual innovation “scoreboard” show the UK’s public and business R&D expenditure was below par for the EU.
And Europe as a whole has a problem, because on 10 out of 12 indicators the US is ahead, says Geoghegan-Quinn.
The EU target for investment in research and development is 3% of GDP – but figures for 2009 suggest it is running just above 2%, with many member states seeing a drop.
Adam Hill
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