Did any of you catch that recent WSJ report on the negative impact of mass layoffs? OK, I know that M&A layoffs are different, but today brought the sad news that Pfizer/Wyeth will lay off 6,000 employees and close eight of its manufacturing plants in Ireland, Puerto Rico and the U.S.

Yesterday, I wrote on PharmaQbD.com about a new Morgan Stanley report which suggests that small-molecule drug manufacturers (and to a lesser degree biologics manufacturers) have very little financial incentive to perform their own research and development activities. The old arguments about keeping certain core competencies in-house and managing risks don't hold water anymore, the report says.

Reading an article online today from the Boston Herald on how AstraZeneca is outfitting its new Waltham, Mass. R&D center with the latest and greatest green bells and whistles . . . it's good to see, but hardly surprising.

Newsweek has just released its list of the 500 greenest companies, including sector breakdowns. Here are the top pharma companies, headed up by J&J (number 3 overall) and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

The above is a quote from Pfizer's Steve Wicks, VP of Worldwide Pharmaceutical Sciences, as told on Nature's "The Great Beyond" blog. We've heard about the end of the blockbuster era and the need for the industry to remake itself, but I find Wicks' phrasing of it intriguing.
--PWT

In its ongoing series of articles about the struggle to defeat cancer, the New York Times yesterday chronicled Pfizer's headlong dive into the cancer drug market. There are two major trends that are pushing Pfizer and other manufacturers to invest heaviliy in oncology.

Pfizer's Green Chemistry Program has won the U.K.'s BCE Environmental Leadership Award. We recently featured the company's Singapore plant and the greening of its gabapentin process--a project which falls under the umbrella of the green chemistry program.

How did we ever live without DVD's and the "movie behind the movie" clips?  Pfizer recently publicized a behind-the-scenes look at how it filmed its recent controversial public service ad, aimed at stopping online counterfeit drug sales. 
 Now  Click here to watch the film behind the film.

Pfizer has announced details of what it will look like following the merger with Wyeth, saying that it aims to keep most key Wyeth execs as heads of a new BioTherapeutics Research Group. The small-molecule group will be labelled, creatively, the PharmaTherapeutics Research Group, and will be run by Martin Mackay, who now oversees PGRD. Here's the official release with more.

--PWT

Has anyone missed the bold "Jaws" cover of Pharmaceutical Executive? In this feeding frenzy of M&A, Pfizer has been at the center of much discussion. So, many who might not otherwise have attended SOCMA’s luncheon yesterday flocked to hear a presentation by John LaMattina, former head of R&D at Pfizer and author of a new book. This is a very quick summary of points he made in his speech.