RSC President welcomes Pfizer's decision to retain 350 jobs but warns of false dawn

The president of the Royal Society of Chemistry welcomed the news that Pfizer is to retain 350 jobs at its Sandwich site, but warned of a false dawn.

Professor David Phillips said: "It is obviously heartening to hear that a core group of highly-skilled workers will be retained by Pfizer, at least for the foreseeable future. I hope that when the company concludes its 'review' of this situation in the years ahead, it will decide at the very least to keep this small team in Kent.

"But let's be clear - there are still 2,000 jobs being lost at Pfizer and to hear that many of those soon-to-be-departed have already accepted jobs abroad is incredibly disappointing. The UK is in danger of losing huge chunks of its highly-skilled scientific workforce if more pharmaceutical companies decide to shut down UK-based operations."