Canter: Ex-Pfizer site promising for University of Michigan

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 | Source: Ann Arbor Business Review

What plans does the University of Michigan have for the Pfizer campus? David Canter seems to have some ideas.

Excerpt:

David Canter, former site director of Pfizer's 2-million-square-foot Ann Arbor facility, won't give you a direct answer about whether he's been asked to help the University of Michigan determine how to use the property.

But Canter, speaking to Ann Arbor Business Review in a wide-ranging interview, said U-M's $108 million trophy is quite the prize.

Despite the economic crisis and the fundraising problems local startup companies are facing, Canter said Michigan could still breed a strong life sciences industry.

"The Midwest represents something different. It is different from the East Coast, the West Coast. We have a definite set of Midwest values and that's a great environment to be successful. We actually have a very strong history of success," Canter said.

"Probably 40 to 50 percent of Pfizer's income comes from products that were invented in the Midwest. We are actually good at what we do. We don't get external praise. It's as though the only sources of great ideas are supposed to come from California or Boston, but the truth is otherwise."

Read the rest of the story here.