Pfizer to Cut Research, Shut Plants in Savings Effort

Ian Read, the new chief executive officer of Pfizer Inc., plans to lower costs by closing labs and reducing research spending by as much as $3 billion as the company faces declining sales of its best-selling drug.

“We have to fix our innovative core, and that’s what this R&D change is about,” Read told reporters at Pfizer headquarters in New York today. The reductions are part of a plan to overhaul the company’s research operation to focus on the most-profitable programs, Read said.