Many of the Pfizer's former Ann Arbor employees are staying put, even though the drugmaker's campus is closing and the jobs are leaving. More than a few Pfizer refugees have found safe jobs throughout the area and Cerenis Therapeutics is one of the places offering a safe harbor.
"When Pfizer closed the facility in Ann Arbor several people decided to join us," says Jean-Louis Dasseux, co-founder of Cerenis Therapeutics.
That's not hard to believe since the people behind Cerenis Therapeutics, which develops HDL (commonly known as cholesterol) drugs, have a connection or two to the mega-corporation. At least nine people with Cerenis Therapeutics, including Dasseux, have either worked for Pfizer or for a company that Pfizer gobbled up (Ie. Esperion Therapeutics).
Cerenis opened offices in Ann Arbor and France sthree years ago with just two people. It has since grown to nine people on each side of the Atlantic, and plans to add another three positions to each office by the end of the year.
Dasseux sees many of those jobs being filled by people from the Ann Arbor region. "You have a lot of experienced and knowledgeable people in Ann Arbor," he explains, adding he once lived in Ann Arbor and still keeps a house there. "We like that."
Source: Jean-Lious Dasseux, co-founder of Cerenis Therapeutics
Writer: Jon Zemke
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