Pfizer Increases Brazilian Investment

Pfizer of the USA has said it plans to invest some $100 million to double production and set up a research and development unit in Brazil by 1998. According to a Pfizer spokeswoman (reported by Reuters), the company will build a new plant and remodel existing ones in the greater Sao Paulo area, which will increase output of medicines there to 60 million tonnes a year.

The decision to expand the Brazilian operation is said to be due to congressional approval earlier this year (Marketletters passim) of a law bringing Brazil's patents and copyright protection legislation into line with international laws. For 1995, Pfizer's Brazilian subsidiary reported sales of $190 million, and it is now hoped to make this Brazilian unit an exporting base for the nations comprising the Mercosur customs union.