PM welcomes launch of Pfizer digital innovation hub in Thessaloniki

Pfizer’s investment in Thessaloniki will contribute 650 million euros to the northern port city’s economy and generate much-needed job, the American pharmaceutical giant’s chief executive, Albert Bourla, said on Tuesday at the inauguration of the company’s new centers for Digital Innovation and Business Operations and Services.

“We have expanded our footprint by bringing our operations center here,” he said, commenting that Pfizer initially decided to invest in Thessaloniki two years ago.

Pfizer’s priorities, he said, are aligned with Greece’s reformist policy, which foresees resources from the EU Recovery Fund being channeled into innovation, exports and sustainable growth.

“Our country has human capital and a knowledge-based economy,” said Bourla, a native of Thessaloniki who has been with Pfizer, developer of one of the world’s top Covid vaccines, since 1993.

“This is a very special moment for the city, for Pfizer and also for Albert Bourla, a true Thessalonian,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a speech at Tuesday’s inauguration ceremony, welcoming the investment.

The two centers will employ 700 highly skilled workers, while “more than 50 young people, 15% of the staff, are Greeks returning to Greece for work after several years,” Mitsotakis said.  

He added that Pfizer’s expansion will help turn Thessaloniki into a “hub of major investments, which translates into increased public wealth.”