Nov. 10--Despite persistent rumors for weeks that it might happen, the announcement by Pfizer Inc. that it would close its research and development headquarters in New London still came as a shock Monday. Just eight years ago state, local and Pfizer officials gathered for the grand opening of the $294 million facility, first announced in 1998.

"This is a leap of faith. This was a junk strewn lot full of broken promises," said George M. Milne Jr., then executive vice president of Pfizer Global Research and Development at the June 8, 2001, grand opening. "What a difference three short years make, when you have a vision."

And what a difference eight short years can make when visions change.

Pfizer and the pharmaceutical industry generally saw nothing but bright days ahead in 2001 with the prospects of one blockbuster drug following another. But during the five years from 2002 through 2006 the industry brought to market 43 percent fewer new chemical-based drugs than in the last five years of the 1990s, while more than doubling research-and-development spending.

To survive, pharmaceutical companies began to merge, eliminating the expense of redundant laboratories and concentrating resources in research fields holding out the greatest promise of success. The latest example of merger survival was Pfizer's $67 billion deal to acquire Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.

The collateral damage became apparent Monday when the new and bigger Pfizer announced plans to close six research-and-development sites worldwide, including New London. Pfizer expects to phase out the operation there over the next two years. That is about the same time -- 2011 -- that Pfizer's 10-year property tax abatement expires. Pfizer has only paid taxes based on 20 percent of the assessed value of the property -- meaning $1.3 million in taxes instead of $6.1 million.

Eight years ago state and city officials expected Pfizer research headquarters to serve as the catalyst for development of the adjoining Fort Trumbull peninsula, once the ugly court fight with residents there concluded. The potential for New London revitalization convinced the state to provide $100 million in financial aid for the Pfizer project, along with the tax breaks.

Back then the New London Development Corp. was attempting to evict property owners using eminent domain. In June 2005, four years after the grand opening, the NLDC won a Pyrrhic victory when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the taking of property was constitutional. It was a ruling so unpopular that city and state officials were reluctant to aggressively enforce it. Around the time the last homeowner left, leaving Fort Trumbull finally vacant, the recession had set in.

The lots left behind by the demolition of homes still sit empty. The NLDC is nearly bankrupt.

Yet the news Monday was not all bad. Groton's research and development site will remain Pfizer's largest, focusing on neuroscience, antibacterials and metabolic diseases. When Pfizer finishes all the personnel shifting, it expects to have 5,000 people working in southeastern Connecticut, about the same as the Groton and New London facilities combined have now.

And Pfizer officials report they have "very active discussions" under way for the sale or lease of its impressive New London buildings, which in 2011 will be subject to full taxation, empty or not. Perhaps, in time, the city will benefit as the result of new job creation there.

That must be the focus going forward -- city and state officials working with Pfizer to attract new tenants. That is in the mutual interest of all parties.

What could have been or should have been matters not now. Pfizer, incredibly, is leaving, and working toward a new future without it must begin.

-----

To see more of The Day, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.theday.com.

Copyright (c) 2009, The Day, New London, Conn.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

PFE,

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.