SLU Will Snap Up Ex-Pfizer Staff
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) (February 11, 2010)
Feb. 11--St. Louis University will tap into the large pool of
laid-off Pfizer scientists to launch a new
research center focused on discovering drugs to treat medical
problems in the developing world.
SLU has committed $5 million over the next two years to fund the
Center for World Health & Medicine, which will launch in July,
Raymond Tait, SLU's vice president for research, said Wednesday.
The school initially plans to hire a dozen soon-to-be former Pfizer
researchers.
In November, Pfizer announced it would lay off 600 of its 1,000
employees in St. Louis, part of a 15 percent reduction of the drug
maker's global work force. The reductions followed Pfizer's $68
billion acquisition of the drug maker Wyeth
. Pfizer's main research campus in the area is located
in Chesterfield.
SLU began discussions in early December to figure out ways to keep
some of those scientists in St. Louis. In a time of strained
university resources, this reflects SLU's commitment to the region,
Tait said.
"St. Louis U. worked with uncharacteristic speed," he said. "The
initial reaction was a form of horror to think about the impact of
(the layoffs) on the St. Louis region. After we had a chance to
digest it, we then thought, 'Gee, this also provides us with an
important opportunity that could be transformative for research at
St. Louis U.'"
This is a somewhat unusual venture, in that universities have not
typically delved into the realm of drug discovery, Tait
acknowledged.
"We're not going to compete with Pfizer and Wyeth," he said. "We're
not going after blockbuster drugs."
Rather, the appealing part of this idea was that the school could
follow its Jesuit mission by helping underserved populations, he
said.
Steve Johnson, senior vice president of the St. Louis Regional
Chamber and Growth Association, said SLU's move is a small but
important step in the right direction if St. Louis hopes to plug
the leakage of high-skilled workers to other areas.
There are between 1,700 and 2,000 laid-off scientists and skilled
technical workers in the region right now, Johnson said. Keeping
them, and their skills, in St. Louis is becoming an increasingly
high priority, he said.
"That represents a tremendous amount of talent," Johnson said. "You
don't want to dehumanize people, but those are marketable assets
for the region."
They are the kind of assets that can help lure other big medical
and technology firms here, or that can seed startups, or that, as
in this case, can help launch research groups at local
universities.
"We applaud (SLU's effort)," Johnson said. "And we'll be digging
into this whole issue and look at what other regions are
doing."
SLU still has to hash out many of the details about the new center
-- such as whom exactly it will hire, where it will be housed, and
what areas it will focus on.
"This is still a work in progress," Tait said. "Give us another
couple of months where we can flesh out who will be working with
us."
While many of the scientists have already vacated their
laboratories, they are still under contract with Pfizer, Tait said.
So SLU has not yet officially hired anyone, but it has spoken with
several people who are very interested in the new center, he
said.
Targeting childhood diarrhea is one area that some scientists have
expressed a special interest in, he added.
Tait said he hopes the center will be sustained down the line in
part through research grants, subcontracting work, and perhaps
foundation support.
"We'll see if we cannot make this viable," he said. "Over time, we
suspect we will get some intellectual property, but intellectual
property is not the lifeblood."
SLU has already started writing up an application for a federal
stimulus-funded research grant at the new center, he said.
Down the line, Tait said, SLU could work with pharmaceutical
companies -- including, but not limited to, Pfizer.
"I don't see us undertaking clinical trials," he said. "What I can
see us doing is identifying some promising treatment approaches,
working to where we have some evidence or sense that they are safe.
But in order to bring them to market, we will have to
partner."
To see more of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, or to subscribe to the
newspaper, go to http://www.stltoday.com.
Copyright (c) 2010, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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Posted: February 2010
