Pfizer supposedly closing in East Kent with 3,000 jobs lost.
There goes the area.
Unless they partner with Viiv http://www.viivhealthcare.com/
To help, it seems to me there’s an opportunity to expand – either with Pfizer or others as a joint venture – the existing Viiv portfolio which develops vaccines for HIV etc.
3 of the top 10 HIV drugs are by Viiv and clearly the potential for market growth in Africa and Asia is huge. Pfizer already own much of the portfolio.
I had some brief and positive conversations with Pfizer along these lines for my MP campaign: stop the pollution, stop the corruption, stop the construction.
Coupled with malaria vaccines and TB vaccines (London was recently described as the TB capital of Europe) there’s more than enough scope to secure the R&D jobs plus develop further manufacturing jobs.
To be blunt, some Government contracts via the UNMDG/World Bank or simply the Life Sciences Dept/new Taskforce would secure the jobs and site for the future – and more importantly be more than “super-dole” as they would be focusing on innovative and growing areas of medicine and UN Millennium Goals etc.
Pfizer was originally established as part of the post-WW2 Marshall Plan for Europe and this terrible situation could be the basis for a Marshall Plan for Africa and Asia in Kent.
Pfizer’s labs were also used for developing the polio vaccine so similar activity to ViiV is perfectly possible. Pfizer globally are only a $2Bn posted loss this year, while their JV partner in ViiV Glaxo is expanding by 1,500 jobs.
The opportunity doesn’t seem very complex or difficult given Pfizer has always been an excellent employer and shown real commitment to Kent.
Politicians empty blah-blah, civil servants delay and fudge and meaningless road-building could of course scupper the whole thing as for so many years.
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