As reported by the BBC News, two-thirds of the staff which were made redundant due to the closure of Pfizer’s research and development site in Kent have now successfully found new pharma jobs.
The news comes exactly a year after 1,500 staff at the research and development site were told they were being redundant. Speaking of the news, Dr Annette Doherty, site leader of Pfizer Sandwich, stated that some staff had remained in the biomedical sector, some have set up new businesses themselves, a smaller percentage had returned to further education and some had moved to a different sector.
For example David Reed and Tom Martin, who were both former automation managers, decided to set up their company Flexible Lab Solutions after they were both made redundant. Mr Reed stated, Each individual processed the announcement in a different way, some seemed quite downbeat and felt the company was out to get them while others immediately took it as a chance to do something new or go and pursue something they’d always wanted to do.”
Further news regarding the Pfizer, which is the world’s largest research-based pharmaceutical company, is that they are now negotiating with a potential buyer for the Sandwich site, which is now called the Discovery Park. Doherty confirmed that the area was beginning to attract interest from other businesses and stated, “There are a number of companies that have decided to co-locate with us and a number of small organisations beginning to form that are expressing interest in locating here at Discovery Park. With the regional growth fund and enterprise zone status here, those are the sort of incentives and support from the government that will help to incentivise businesses to set up here and be successful in the future.”
