Pfizer to shut down UK plant in Kent with a potential loss of 2,400 jobs

Pfizer, the global Pharmaceutical company, has announced plans to close its research and development centre in Sandwich, Kent. The closure will put 2,400 jobs at risk, and cause a huge blow to the British Scientific job market.

The centre, which will be closing down over the next two years, was Pfizer’s biggest in Europe and had been running since 1954.

This news was accompanied by Pfizer’s announcement that it would be cutting its revenue forecast for 2012 from between $65.2 – $67.7 billion (40.5 – 42 billion pounds), to between $63 – $65.5 billion (39 – 40.7 billion pounds). This is due to a number of patents, including the multi-billion dollar Lipitor cholesterol medicine, running out in the near future.

Dr Ruth McKernan, the company’s head at the Sandwich research centre, said “It is with a deep sense of sadness that we announce our proposal to exit our site… It has played an important role in the discovery and development of medicines and has brought many life-saving treatments to patients.”

Pfizer is currently working to find partnership opportunities to use the facilities and preserve jobs, adding that they hope to create 3,000 new jobs in the UK in the future.