Call it sour grapes. Call it local pride. But former Republican congressman Joe Schwarz, a doctor whose congressional district includes Pfiizer pfolks, is understandably upset that the drugmaker is dismantling facilities in Michigan and relocating many scientists to its Groton, Connecticut research center.

Less than a year after losing his seat to a Republican primary challenger, Schwarz is now a board member of MichBio, the state’s life sciences association, and he was fairly blunt in a conversation with the Ann Arbor Business Review. Here is an excerpt:

AABR: What was your personal reaction to Pfizer’s decision to close its operation in Ann Arbor?

Schwarz: As a very deep Michigander, I was terribly disappointed to the point of being offended. I think Pfizer had - how shall we say - Pfizer had to make some choices. I don’t think the choice they made was the correct choice. But one has to understand that Pfizer headquarters is in New York City - they have a very large research campus in Groton, which I visited some years ago and it’s quite impressive.

If one follows the business news about Pfizer, the performance of some of their products and maybe the failure to meet expectations on some new products, if you follow that scenario, you see, well, their new ceo and their board felt they had to make some decisions and alter perhaps some of their business strategy.

And they did. I just think it was the wrong strategy. And the idea of completely shutting down 2 million square feet of research space just across the river from one of the great research universities in the country to me is pennywise and pound foolish.

That tremendously talented group of people at the Pfizer facility in Ann Arbor is not replaceable. You can’t make a replica of what they had there elsewhere. So they’re an East Coast company, their executives are basically East Coast people, and I have to say that in my lifetime, which is now getting to be relatively long, I’ve never felt the East Coast clique had an understanding of the Midwest and of the great research universities in the Midwestern states in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

AABR: Pfizer has maintained that the decision had nothing to do with the economic climate in the state of Michigan. Do you believe that?

Schwarz: Yeah, I don’t think it had anything to do with the economic climate in Michigan. I think it probably had a lot to do with what they thought their own economic climate was. And I think that they felt they were a little too strung out.

But even with a very flat stock price, the company remains profitable with some great products on the market. And there’s no question they will have other great products on the market. So why they decided to close this facility, I believe, was corporate inside baseball. And I don’t know that I recognize any particular logic in what they did.

Full interview here.[tags]Jobs, Michigan, Pfizer[/tags]