Pfizer boss in charm offensive as MPs move to protect AstraZeneca

Pfizer has already promised that if its bid for AstraZeneca is successful, the joint company would be headquartered and listed in America but domiciled in the UK for tax purposes. The UK’s 21pc headline rate of corporation tax makes Britain attractive when compared to the effective 27pc rate Pfizer pays in the US.

However Mr Bailey, who led the intense criticism of Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury’s in 2010, said he had concerns that over Pfizer’s tax promises after the company closed its headquarters in Sandwich, Kent, in 2011.

“I would view [the plans] with great concern because here you have a company that closed its operations in Sandwich for tax purposes. And now it wants to buy a British company for tax purposes,” he said. “Its past actions don’t seem to be consistent. This deal needs to be scrutinised very carefully and it’s something we will be looking at in the light of the recommendations of the Takeover Panel and Kay Review.”

Pfizer’s chief executive appears determined to quell these fears behind closed doors, though he declined to make a public commitment to AstraZeneca’s current strategy or British manufacturing, saying only that he saw the UK as “an attractive place to do science and manufacturing”.

The Kay Review, which was commissioned by Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, in the wake of Kraft’s acquisition of Cadbury, aimed to address short-termism in British markets. Although Professor John Kay cautioned against any legislation to protect British companies from foreign takeovers, in its response the Government said in future it would “engage with companies and their investors... to promote investment which benefits the UK economy”.

Mr Bailey admitted that MPs had been too slow in scrutinising Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury, which led to the closure of its production plants in Bristol, after the deal was done.

“I think we should get involved much earlier in deals,” he said. “There wasn’t the opportunity with Cadbury’s and Kraft but with the Pfizer takeover there might well be.”

He said his concerns about the merger were “about sustaining and developing Britain’s research base - and jobs are obviously an integral part of that.” He added that AstraZeneca and Pfizer “operate in an area where the UK has a global standing. Anything that is done that might compromise that has to be looked over as a matter of national interest and national significance, this is where I think we need to have a mechanisms for reviewing such deals.”

AstraZeneca plays a crucial role in Britain’s life sciences sector, employing nearly 7,000 people and accounting for more than 2pc of exports of goods. Its relocation is considered instrumental for promoting Britain’s so-called “golden triangle” – Oxford, Cambridge and London – into the same league as the world’s top biotech cluster in Boston.

more