Pfizer jobs safe...through holidays

Pfizer's head of worldwide discovery research, Rod MacKenzie, communicated to employees that more research jobs will be on the chopping block, just as analysts predicted, but he said he wouldn't be able to be specific about it by the end of the year. 

"Given the complexity of the changes within research, I have concluded that we will not be able to provide that clarity or communicate them by the end of the year," he wrote. Job cuts will likely hit research facilities in Connecticut, according to The Day.

Pfizer also announced that it has entered into an agreement with Sigma-Tau, a privately owned Italian pharmaceutical company, to market a drug called Eurartesim in Africa.

The license and supply agreement is to sell the malaria drug in Africa. The drug, a phase III product candidate, aims to treat one type of uncomplicated malaria in both adults and children. The companies expect to register the drug--which U.S. regulatory authorities have already granted orphan status according to the Pfizer release--with the FDA in 2009.

- here's Pfizer's release on the Sigma-Tau deal
- read more at Pharmalot

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