Pa. senators hope local Wyeth jobs are retained

As Wyeth's acquisition by Pfizer Inc. took one step closer to completion yesterday, state legislators spearheading efforts to retain jobs here said they were fairly confident many positions would remain at Wyeth's regional operations.

"Representatives of both Pfizer and Wyeth have continued to assure us that we should not worry and they have continued to listen to the case that we have made for as many jobs as possible remaining in Pennsylvania," said State Sen. Andy Dinniman, a Democrat who represents parts of Chester and Montgomery Counties.

Wyeth employs about 4,500 people in the region - about 3,600 in Collegeville and 900 in Great Valley and other sites.

Dinniman, State Sen. John Rafferty, a Republican whose district includes parts of Montgomery, Berks, and Chester Counties, and others have been working with officials from Gov. Rendell's office to lobby Pfizer, which is based in New York, to keep jobs here.

Rafferty said he, too, was hopeful that the region's wealth of pharmaceutical and biotech companies and research opportunities would lure Pfizer into staying.

Pfizer, which plans to cut about 20,000 of the combined companies' 130,000 jobs, would not comment yesterday. The $68 billion deal is expected to close in the next month or so. Yesterday, Pfizer said it had received approval from Chinese regulators but still awaits government thumbs-up in Australia, Canada, and the United States.

An unscientific poll on the blog "Pharma Conduct" (http://blog.pharmaconduct.org) lists Wyeth's Madison, N.J., headquarters and its Princeton facility as the most likely of 18 Pfizer and Wyeth sites to close. Great Valley was fifth. Collegeville was seventh.

When the Pfizer/Wyeth deal was announced in January, it was expected to unleash a wave of merger and acquisition activity. Merck and Schering-Plough announced their proposed merger in March, in a deal expected to be completed by the end of this year.

In a trio of deals Monday, Abbott Laboratories said it would pay $6.6 billion for the pharmaceutical business of Belgian chemicals maker Solvay; Johnson & Johnson bought an 18 percent stake in Dutch biotechnology company Crucell NV, which is trying to develop a universal flu vaccine; and competitor Merck acquired the rights to sell Australia-based CSL Ltd.'s Afluria flu vaccine in the U.S.

Even so, Rick Wise, an analyst with the investment firm Leerink Swann, said he had expected to see more deals, sooner. He said big companies seemed to be taking a cue from consumers, hoarding cash and avoiding big purchases. But this week's news may mean that is starting to change, he said.

"We're starting to see some of the planning that began some months ago turn into practical tangible action."