Once Pfizer Inc. completes its acquisition of Wyeth, its smaller U. S. rival valued at $68-million, Martin Mackay, Pfizer's current head of research confirmed in an interview, there will be two research chiefs, one in charge of traditional medicines and the other of biotech drugs and vaccines.

While, Pfizer focuses mainly on 'small molecule' drugs i. e. traditional oral medicines made from synthetic chemicals, Wyeth's strong point is vaccines and biotech drugs i. e. injectable or intravenous drugs made in living cells, drugs that are adept at blocking or activating specific disease linked proteins.

With the merger complete, Mackay, Pfizer's head of research and Mikael Dolsten, Wyeth's current head of research will give up their current positions to head separate divisions, namely PharmaTherapeutics Group and BioTherapeutics Research Group, newly created divisions of Pfizer, one focusing on the discovery of small molecule drugs, the other on vaccines and biotech medicines.

Serving as presidents of their respective groups, Mackay and Dolsten will report to Jeff Kindler, Pfizer Chief Executive.

Despite a $7-billion annual research budget, Pfizer, the world's biggest drug manufacturer for the past decade after it bought out two of its smaller rivals, namely Pharmacia and Warner-Lambert, Pfizer's laboratories have produced few medicines.

Mackay, hopeful that infusion of fresh blood and talent from Wyeth will wrought a change in the fortunes of Pfizer's research centres, flung wide said: 'Wyeth will bring us its prowess in bio-therapeutics and vaccines, and also a significant presence in disease areas that are important to us, like Alzheimer's disease and oncology. We're well poised to deliver a whole crop of new products,' noting that Pfizer has an impressive number of experimental medicines in late testing.

While, Ian Read, Pfizer's current president of global pharmaceutical operations is slated to become group president of Pfizer Bio-Pharmaceutical Businesses, top Pfizer posts have also been reserved for senior Wyeth researchers.