Shutting site of Viagra invention will hurt UK's status

The closure of a state-of-the-art centre where Viagra was invented will significantly compromise the UK's status as a centre of excellence for pharmaceutical research, one of the inventors of the drug has said.

Pfizer, the world's biggest drugs company, announced last week it is to close its centre in Sandwich, Kent, within two years, in a move that will see most of the site's 2,400 staff lose their jobs.

The move by the firm has fanned fears that the UK is losing its position as a centre of excellence in drugs research and follows the announcement of job cuts at drugs giants GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca in recent years.

Simon Campbell, previously a senior executive at Pfizer and a key member of the team that developed the sex drug Viagra, slammed the decision and said the plant must not be allowed to lie idle.

He said: "It is difficult to understand the closure of Sandwich, which was the most productive research site in the world.

"The position of the UK as a centre of excellence for pharmaceutical research has been significantly compromised.

"Capital investment of more than $1 billion (621.2 million) has been made at Sandwich and such state-of-the-art facilities cannot simply lie idle."

The Royal Society of Chemistry has estimated that nearly 6,000 jobs have gone over the last 12 months from UK drugs and science firms.