Pfizer will face demands for firmer guarantees on British jobs and investment when its boss is grilled by UK lawmakers today over its proposed £63bn takeover of AstraZeneca.
Ian Read, chairman and chief executive of the US pharmaceuticals company, will tell MPs that the deal would create “a UK-based scientific powerhouse” and promise to “keep our word” on jobs.
However, the two sides appeared to be in stalemate yesterday. Pfizer said its existing commitments, including a pledge to keep 20 per cent of the two companies’ combined research jobs in Britain, were already legally binding even as UK politicians made clear they were not strong enough.