Deal or no deal

摘要

Scientists in Sandwich, in southern England, were testing a new heart treatment when they noticed an odd side-effect in their volunteers: lots of erections. So it was that Pfizer, an American pharmaceuti-cals firm, turned sildenafil into Viagra, a drug for erectile dysfunction that would earn the company billions. But in Sandwich, at least, the pleasure was brief. In 2012 Pfizer closed most of the research lab responsible for the little blue pill and cut hundreds of jobs. With Pfizer now bidding for AstraZe-neca, Britain's second-largest pharmaceu-ticals firm, many worry that more jobs will be lost, along with the country's position as a leader in scientific research. Although AstraZeneca has cut back on research and development in the past, it still spent £1.5 billion ($2.5 billion) in Britain in 2012. It has 6,700 employees in the country and claims to support 33,182 jobs. If Pfizer succeeds with its takeover bid-still informal and priced at £50 per share, or £63 billion-the odds increase that some of this will move out of Britain. That would be a blow to an industry into which politicians have poured their hopes.