Pfizer Bringing 400 Jobs To Cambridge
BOSTON (CBS) - Pfizer Inc. will bring 400 research jobs to its new research and development center in Cambridge, a move that will include relocating scientists from other facilities as well as new hiring.
As first reported by The Round Up Aug. 19 , Pfizer will occupy a new building being developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at 610 Main Street South in Kendall Square.
The drug company has entered into a 10-year lease agreement with the university for more than 180,000 square feet of space. The entire facility will house 230,000 square feet of rentable space.
The new site will house the company's cardiovascular, metabolic and endocrine disease, and neuroscience research units, which are being moved to Massachusetts from Groton, Conn., as part of a $2 billion restructuring plan that was announced last February.
At the time, Pfizer executives said the company was looking at locations in both Boston and Cambridge for the site.
The jobs announcement means Pfizer will grow to the second largest pharmaceutical employer in the state in terms of head count.
"We were very deliberate in our choice to move to Cambridge, Mass. as a key part of our R&D strategy. By expanding our presence in one of the world's great centers of scientific and medical innovation, we will provide the best environment for our researchers to invent the next generation of medicines in areas of greatest need, such as Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, diabetes and cardiovascular disease," Rod MacKenzie, Pfizer's senior vice president and head of PharmaTherapeutics Research & Development, said in a statement.
"We intend to foster productive formal and informal collaborations between our drug discovery experts and the outstanding scientists of Cambridge's world class institutions. This is a very exciting period in Pfizer R&D."
The new space will be completed by the end of 2013.
In the meantime, Pfizer said the cardiovascular research unit will be moved into interim space at the end of this summer at Pfizer's location at 620 Memorial Drive, also in Cambridge.
The neuroscience unit also will relocate to interim space in Cambridge in the second quarter of 2012.
Lisa van der Pool of the Boston Business Journal reports
"It is great news that Pfizer is boosting its presence in Massachusetts and bringing close to 400 new jobs here," Governor Deval Patrick said in a statement.
"Companies like Pfizer know that Massachusetts can't be beat when it comes to providing a high-quality workforce and high-quality of life, thanks to our nation-leading investments in education, health care and innovation."
As part of the restructuring announced in February, Pfizer plans to exit the Memorial drive facility, because the company is shifting focus away from the therapeutic areas studied there, including regenerative medicine.
There have been an undisclosed number of layoffs at that site, but Pfizer has said that there will be a net gain in terms of jobs.
The company plans to maintain both manufacturing and research and development capabilities at its site in Andover.
