NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pfizer Inc
The company said it expects to eliminate 300 positions from the neuroscience discovery and early development programs in Andover and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Groton, Connecticut, as it redistributes the money spent on research, according to the emailed statement.
Pfizer is not making any changes to research and development funding for tanezumab, which is marketed as a treatment for joint pain from osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia treatment Lyrica, or its rare disease program.
“This was an exercise to re-allocate spend across our portfolio, to focus on those areas where our pipeline, and our scientific expertise, is strongest,” the company said.
Pfizer has invested heavily in research for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and is one of several drugmakers, along with GlaxoSmithKline
However, some of Pfizer’s investments have resulted in disappointment. In 2012, Pfizer and partner Johnson & Johnson
The company said on Saturday that it will launch a new venture fund to invest in neuroscience research projects.
Pfizer is expected to make a presentation on Monday at the JP Morgan healthcare conference in San Francisco, a key annual event for healthcare investors.
(Reporting By Elizabeth Dilts, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)