In the 60 years since, the Groton site has had a hand in the discovery and development of such medicines as Zoloft and Zithromax and,
more recently, Xalkori and Xeljanz. Today, nearly everything Pfizer
produces is developed at its 160-acre complex on Eastern Point Road,
where more than 2,600 people work in 2.8 million square feet of space.
Pfizer Groton has been observing the anniversary amid little fanfare.“We’re excited to be celebrating it,” John Burkhardt, senior
vice president of drug safety R&D and head of the Pfizer Groton
site, said in a phone interview. “It’s interesting to reflect on what
has changed over time.”
Pfizer’s presence in Groton dates back to 1946, when the company bought the Navy-owned Victory shipyard where Electric Boat built
submarines during World War II. In May 1948, Pfizer began manufacturing
citric acid at the site and added production of gluconic acid,
penicillin and caffeine and, in 1950, Terramycin, a blockbuster
antibiotic.
In 1954, a Pfizer executive would declare Pfizer Groton “the largest antibiotic plant in the world.”
Now devoted almost entirely to research and development, the site is engaged in treating a variety of diseases by focusing on molecular
structures. The approach and the equipment involved are highly
sophisticated, the people who do the work highly trained. Scientists
account for about half of the Pfizer Groton workforce, Burkhardt said.
Thousands of contractors also work at the site, bringing the total
number of jobs provided to more than 5,600.
“Their impact on the town can’t be overstated, in terms of the taxes they pay, the number of employees, the community grants they give out,”
Groton Town Manager John Burt said. “There’s a culture of volunteerism
among the people who work there.”
Pfizer, long the town's top taxpayer, paid the town $8.3 million in property taxes last year, while providing the third-most jobs of any
employer in town, behind Electric Boat and the Naval Submarine Base. It
paid another $1.3 million in taxes to the City of Groton.
Keith Hedrick, the city’s mayor, said the city has a positive relationship with Pfizer, citing the company’s contributions to
infrastructure improvements and various beautification projects. He said
he considers Pfizer Groton’s manufacturing past, which occasionally
involved complaints about foul smells and problem discharges into New
London Harbor, all but forgotten.
“That’s not what this site is about now,” Hedrick said. “They’re renovating buildings for more lab space and have a plan for power-plant
(expansion) work in a year or two. Their footprint and their
contribution to the tax base will increase over time. Their mode is
slow, controlled growth. … My point is they’re here for the long term.”
Pfizer credits the quality of life that Groton and coastal Connecticut provide with helping it recruit and retain talent, according
to Burkhardt. Within the company, he said, the Groton site is known for
its campus-like setting and a collegial atmosphere that’s conducive to
creativity.
It’s also part of “a strengthening triangle of startups, mature pharma, and academia extending from Groton to New Haven to the
University of Connecticut,” Burkhardt said. “These are creating a
vibrant biomedical research community further strengthened by nonprofit
contributions from leading organizations like BioCT,” a nonprofit
business incubator that provides space in a building Pfizer donated in
2014.
Still, attracting millennials to a state that lacks a major metropolitan area has its challenges.
“What we can offer is the fulfillment of the job itself. That’s something we can control as an employer,” Burkhardt said. “Millennials
want their lives to matter, and (achieving) that can be difficult. But
when you work here, you can make a difference.”
Increasingly, Pfizer and the pharmaceutical industry in general have been concentrating on the rapid development of drugs that target narrow
"subpopulations." For example, Burkhardt said, while Xeljanz, a Pfizer
drug that treats arthritis, was developed over 15 years and treats
hundreds of thousands of patients, it took Pfizer less than five years
to develop Lorbrena, a drug that treats “a single-digit percentage of
lung cancer patients” whose tumors have a specific mutation.
Lorbrena, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November, was one of four Pfizer anti-cancer drugs that won such
approval in a three-month period last year.
Charles Santa Maria, Pfizer Groton's senior director of chemical research and development, heads a 40-member team that works on
production of the “active pharmaceutical ingredient” in a medicine and
ensures that enough can be made to supply clinical trials. Large amounts
of ingredients are produced at Pfizer’s facility in Sandwich, England,
and tablets and capsules containing the ingredients are ultimately
manufactured in Ireland.
