"A spring in their step"?

Probably because summer hours has started and their are all heading home early.

They don't call it POETS for nothing.....

Another Pfizer Kool Aid drinker drinking the Jonestown Punch.

All good in Sandwich this week. People go about their business with a spring in their step and a smile on their faces. It is, oh so wonderful. We will discover a new wonder drug, I can feel it in my water. "Long live Kindler".

""They haven't rung the bell yet, but the global depression has arrived."

It's been here for about a year. Great going. No wonder you people are so bad. Scientists are supposed to be observant and make the most obvious conclusion from verifiable data, or did you miss that part in Grad School?"

A great reply from someone who clearly doesn't get it. What we've had in the last year is financial turmoil and a recession. But you ain't seen nothing yet !

All that money dished out to save the banks has just delayed the inevitable. Now it's time for everyone to pay, especially if you live in one of the many bloated western countries that have followed a debt-laden consumer boom approach to economic (mis)management. The US economy has started to head down again and this time there's no way of borrowing our way out of trouble. A financial storm is brewing again in Europe and I'm afraid everyone is still connected. It's going to be very, very painful.

Until we in the West learn that economies need to invent, make and sell real things to sustain economic growth we are going to be completely stuffed.

start a new thread for christ's sake

"They haven't rung the bell yet, but the global depression has arrived."

It's been here for about a year. Great going. No wonder you people are so bad. Scientists are supposed to be observant and make the most obvious conclusion from verifiable data, or did you miss that part in Grad School?

I wonder how MD feels about an expensive UK research site now MM has jumped ship. Not sure that I'd look to RM for any loyalty.

What we need now is a futile gesture to demonstrate that the company believes in fiscal control.

Bye bye Sandwich.

They haven't rung the bell yet, but the global depression has arrived. Don't be surprised if the severance decreases drastically.

Have they adjusted the severance package at Sandwich yet in line with market forces ? I'm hearing rumors of more change coming from higher up the food chain.

quote:

'Why would anybody want to rent what is basically a giant fume cupboard? The idea of putting reactors in fume cupboards for containment reasons was a joke. No wonder the place got closed.
Can't see anybody being dumb enough to pay good money to rent reactors you can't get at - or clean.'

I don't know about the cleaning, but they were pigs to do maintenance on!

Health and safety went mad in SW years ago.
PRODUCTIVITY DROPPED LIKE A STONE

'Why would anybody want to rent what is basically a giant fume cupboard? The idea of putting reactors in fume cupboards for containment reasons was a joke. No wonder the place got closed.
Can't see anybody being dumb enough to pay good money to rent reactors you can't get at - or clean.'

I don't know about the cleaning, but they were pigs to do maintenance on!

Why would anybody want to rent what is basically a giant fume cupboard? The idea of putting reactors in fume cupboards for containment reasons was a joke. No wonder the place got closed.
Can't see anybody being dumb enough to pay good money to rent reactors you can't get at - or clean.

Apparently there will be visitors at the Kilo lab next Thursday, with a view to renting.

Belgium's corporation tax = 8 - 10% (benefiting from EU Patent Box legislation).

UK corporation tax > 30%

Piece by piece Sandwich is being demolished and closed. Once manufacturing closed the site became commercially inviable and as each decision is made Sandwich loses out on cost.

Time to ditch some management layers.

The cost of running the Sandwich site keeps on rising...

....not long now before the whole show closes.

VMRD was a tenant of Pfizer UK Ltd on the Sandwich site. The 'rent' they paid was proving too high. So, like you or I would in rented housing, they're moving. Not really a shock. Sandwich can now moth ball a bit more of the site until another tenant can be found.

Looks like Sandwich site has to seriously cut costs to make it viable for the business to stay there, otherwise it makes sense for all BUs to move to Belgium :)

All decisions driven by cost. VMRD is relocating at Brussels site since costs are 70% of Sandwich site. Decisions are based on cost, not convenience.

Bit of a shock today after hearing VMRD is vacating Sandwich site to re-establish itself in Brussels. Is this another nail in the coffin for Sandwich? Do VMRD Management know something that we don't about Sandwich? I am seriously concerned about the future of this site.

"There is no way that anyone is going to hear a even a tiny leak before a site closure occurs."

It is standard Pfizer practice now to pepare a plan for the closure of every site detailing the costs and implications of closures. That is a very difficult document to keep completely secret. The one for Sandwich is uncomfortable reading for those who've seen it, as since the Wyeth merger, with duplicated facilities, Sandwich has got a whole lot easier to close down. Add to that the weak employment laws in the UK and it's getting closer and closer to a done deal.

V quiet for over week---SND settling down now after all the shake ups?

"Soon" could mean a week, a month, or a quarter--in which case I'd agree with you.

Posts here are talking about 2012-2015--most people would not call that "soon"

Please be more precise (are you a manager, perhaps?)

Sandwich isn't going to be closed anytime soon. Don't worry.

From across the pond, I find this sad. Sure some people complain about Sandwich in Groton, but there are those of us who have really enjoyed working with Sandwich colleagues. Personal opinion, I think Groton hasn't been productive because of our mean-spirited culture.

Closing SN will maintain's AD 100% record on that score. She's a shutdown expert.

"Unless they start slashing school budgets and laying off Teachers"

It's already started mate...and there's worse to come. Much, much worse. Anybody thinking of teaching should look at all oftheir options.

Once the decision on the Pilot Plant is done then Sandwich is toast

Re: WTF are you kidding? There is no way that anyone is going to hear a even a tiny leak before a site closure occurs.

That is what we said at AstraZeneca Charnwood when we first started getting the rumours. I'd believe anything now.

When you hear about the next large group to vacate the site you will understand why the writing is on the wall. It doesn't need those on high to say it, it's obvious. Watch and wait.

"Quite sad in a way that a site that was almost 5000 strong at one point will cease to function "

This already happened to many legacy Wyeth sites, tough luck.

"there's gonna be a lot of ex-Pfizer teachers in Kent!!!"

Unless they start slashing school budgets and laying off Teachers there like they do in the States.

there's gonna be a lot of ex-Pfizer teachers in Kent!!!

agreed; no longer doubt for a moment that sandwich will close. In fact, would speculate that its probably a done deal with the date already set (by 2012?). There is nothing in the near-market pipeline that can possibly save it. However, no one - and i mean no one, at sandwich, regardless of grade, will be in on this until the last very last minute. Quite sad in a way that a site that was almost 5000 strong at one point will cease to function and yet drug discovery, science and patient populations will not be any the worse off for its demise.

"I'm finally hearing concern from Sandwich Management that the closure of Sandwich is quite likely. I didn't want to believe this and am shocked by how far some plans have progressed. Expect to hear quite a few shake ups soon with unexpected relocations of some groups to other sites. Christ I'm shocked by how this news has affected me."

WTF are you kidding? There is no way that anyone is going to hear a even a tiny leak before a site closure occurs.

I'm finally hearing concern from Sandwich Management that the closure of Sandwich is quite likely. I didn't want to believe this and am shocked by how far some plans have progressed. Expect to hear quite a few shake ups soon with unexpected relocations of some groups to other sites. Christ I'm shocked by how this news has affected me.

"You may have HTS but, Groton refuses to send their samples to you. They would rather run them in small batches then send anything to Sandwich. Groton HTS team rocked and they got screwed just because the VEEP didn't want to travel to Groton. Their numbers exceeded Sandwich by a factor of 4."

Name one drug that was discovered as a consequence of a Groton HTS.

At least Sandwich has Maraviroc even if it hasn't made any money.

It won't matter anyway - the new model is to run the screens where the compounds are made - in India or China.

what numbers? the numbers of leads that turned out to be medicines which benefit the ill? No. I don't think so. And sadly, no other numbers matter.
Oh, the mighty Groton and its false measures of productivity. And no one says "rocks" anymore. No doubt your name is Brad, or Zak, or Chad, or Zeek or some other nomenclature of twatness. Do us all a favour, not least of all your parents; handshake the carbon monoxide.

You may have HTS but, Groton refuses to send their samples to you. They would rather run them in small batches then send anything to Sandwich. Groton HTS team rocked and they got screwed just because the VEEP didn't want to travel to Groton. Their numbers exceeded Sandwich by a factor of 4.

yes it is

is sandwich still doing HTS? May have misunderstood but TS in Groton indicated that library screening would be centralised to a single site after Lipitor drops. You guys may be lucky - you may become our only small white pill unit with the rest of us mucking about with antibodies and vaccines.

You must work in Liquids

No I work at Pfizer - all of Pfizer is SLOW - the place has stopped because management is still integrating! This stupidity has been going on ever since we bought Warner Lambert. If we hadn't started the merger insanity we would be sitting on several winning drugs by now.
PFIZER MANAGEMENT managed the company straight into the ground.

Was also told 'more to come'

confirmed yesterday as being safe "this round" but then told that sandwich should keep one eye on the ball and the other on lipitors patent ending. I don't know why we are renting out to contract chemists - cant see any need after 2012. So i give in, and since other pharma in the uk clearly have no intention of hiring ex-pfizer folk, its got to be a career change.

You must work in Liquids

I am soo bored!!!
This waiting around for my pay cheque
I don't deserve it but I got over it a long time ago.

SPB

Our departmental director always said that we should feel free to ignore and not attend any meetings if we didn't feel they were a good use of our time.

I tried that a few of times.....it didn't do me any good.
Not a team player.
So I went back to wasting my time.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 16/02/2010 - 12:26.

I've often wondered if shift work for research would work. People only work one quarter of the total week--for the rest of the time those labs are empty, but heated, vented and usually with the lights on. Would it speed things up, or would it just result in chaos?

Interesting.
During the 1973 miner's strike in the UK when the electricity supply was restricted, much of industry, including the chemical research division of PFE Sandwich, worked part time.
During those weeks the number of UK compounds prepared was greater than in a similar period before the strike.

One though, if PFE Sandwich is in 'good' shape, why did C&E News just report a bunch of contract chemists being brought in? The era of the chemists are over, next the biologists, pretty soon we will all be contracts or watch our job go to China

"Shift work requires planning and team work"

Surely both are Pfizer core values, so no problem!