Innovation in Chesterfield

August 25, 2007

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Back in January, the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced that it planned to cut 10,000 jobs worldwide by the end of the year. But in Chesterfield, already home to some 1,200 Pfizer scientist-researchers, a $200 million research center continues to rise from its construction site, and this week the company broke ground on a $50 million expansion of current operations there.

The expansion essentially will double Pfizer's research into the development of so-called biologic drugs, which are made from living sources such as animal or plant cells. Pfizer already markets three such drugs, an inhaled form of insulin and two growth hormones, developed partly in Chesterfield. It has at least 13 other biologics in the works, including a treatment for lung cancer that is about to start a third phase of patient testing.

Pfizer hopes that biologics eventually will account for as much as one-fourth of its drug-development pipeline, which is the key to the future of any pharmaceutical company. All of Pfizer's work on biologics will come through the Chesterfield facility - testimony to the region's scientific talent.

Companies such as Pfizer draw on the knowledge and expertise of the first-class research operations at the schools of medicine at Washington University and St. Louis University. Meanwhile, work at Monsanto and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center are making St. Louis a worldwide center for crop biotechnology. Boeing and its suppliers provide us a comparative advantage in aerospace.

California's Silicon Valley is home to the industrial-scientific juggernaut of the computer industry. Here in the St. Louis region, we continue to make progress developing our own science-based growth industries, along with the high-paying jobs and the potential benefits to society they represent.

Pfizer's latest expansion is a very welcome addition to that ongoing effort.