Pfizer Inc. said yesterday that chief executive officer Jeffrey Kindler will replace his top research and finance officers as he leads a restructuring of the world’s largest drug maker.

John LaMattina, global head of research, which has its headquarters in New London, Conn., and another facility in Groton, will retire. About 300 Rhode Islanders work at those sites.

Alan Levin resigned as chief financial officer, the New York- based company said yesterday in a statement. The two executives had a combined 50 years of experience at Pfizer.

Kindler, the 52-year-old former McDonald’s Corp. lawyer who took the top Pfizer job in July, has replaced the drug maker’s pharmaceuticals chief and started cutting 10,000 workers. He is under pressure to bring more new drugs to market because patent expirations and generic competition will cost Pfizer more than $20 billion in revenue by 2011.

“There probably was an element of pushing here to get new blood,” said Paul Diggle, a London-based Nomura Code analyst. “The company has gotten classically stuck and the pressure has increased a lot on these guys.”

Shares of Pfizer fell 2 cent to $27.42 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have gained 5.9 percent this year.

“We intend to make our internal capability even more effective by tapping into the best scientific capability outside our walls — wherever it exists,” Kindler said in a statement.

LaMattina, 57, led Pfizer’s push to develop new products, including the failed cholesterol pill torcetrapib, one of Pfizer’s most promising experimental drugs. Studies linked the treatment to elevated blood pressure and showed it wasn’t effective in lowering cholesterol.

Torcetrapib was supposed to replace Lipitor, the world’s top-selling drug, accounting for more than 40 percent of Pfizer’s sales. Patent protection on Lipitor runs out as soon as 2010.

LaMattina will retire by Dec. 31 after 30 years at the company, Pfizer said. Spokesman Ray Kerins declined to comment further. Pfizer will search inside and outside the company for a successor, and LaMattina agreed to stay on to ensure a smooth transition, the company said.

“Now is the time for a leadership transition, so that we have the right leader in place to bring our innovative new medicines forward,” LaMattina said in the company statement.

Kindler credited LaMattina with building the company’s early- and mid-stage drug pipelines. The company has about 50 candidates in early-stage development and about 30 in mid-stage development. Early-stage drugs take an average of 8½ years to get to a possible Food and Drug Administration approval, and mid-stage drugs are an average of seven years away.

The company also has drugs in late-stage development to treat obesity, cancers of the lung, skin, and thyroid gland, along with studies on drugs already on the market for four new uses.

Levin, 45, who was named CFO in March 2005, is leaving after 20 years to “pursue career opportunities outside Pfizer,” the company said. Levin agreed to continue in his position while the company seeks his replacement.

Pfizer will probably look for a finance chief who is “highly credentialed” and has “significant visibility with investors,” said Deutsche Bank analyst Barbara Ryan in a note to clients.

Levin took over as finance chief for David Shedlarz, who was named vice chairman and is one of Kindler’s closest advisers. Levin had a low profile on Wall Street while Shedlarz continued to play the leading role in discussing finances at investor meetings and on analyst calls.

“Levin has had an unusually low profile with the Street, partly we believe due to the high profile maintained by his predecessor,” said J.P. Morgan analyst Chris Shibutani in a note to clients.

Pfizer did not make LaMattina, Levin or Kindler available for comment.

Kindler has been building his own management team since the board promoted him from vice chairman and general counsel to replace the ousted Hank McKinnell last year. McKinnell’s leadership came under fire from investors as Pfizer struggled to find new medicines and the stock lost 40 percent of its value in his five years at the helm.

After less than a month in the job, Kindler reorganized the company’s management team so that the heads of research and medical reported directly to him. He made Allen Waxman general counsel and Ian Read head of worldwide pharmaceuticals, while Pat Kelly, who was head of U.S. pharmaceuticals, lost his post. Vice chairman Karen Katen, who oversaw the pharmaceutical division, left after 32 years and was paid $5.5 million in severance.

Kindler said last year he would look at every aspect of the company to improve productivity and that there are “no sacred cows” at the 98,000-employee company.

Pfizer’s first-quarter profit fell 18 percent and the drugmaker cut its full-year forecast as competition from cheaper drugs hurt two of its best-selling products, Norvasc for blood pressure and Zoloft for depression.

Revenue this year will be $1.2 billion less than Pfizer projected after an adverse court ruling accelerated generic competition to Norvasc and sales of the inhaled insulin treatment Exubera missed targets, the company said April 20. Zoloft also faces generic rivals.

Pfizer says it needs new products after drugs accounting for $10 billion in annual revenue lost patent protection in the past 12 months, opening them to competition from cheaper copies.

“We all know the problems they’ve had, and they need to take some very aggressive moves with the pipeline,” Nomura’s Diggle said. “They’re looking to be a bit more entrepreneurial there.”

Pfizer in April said it will pay Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. as much as $1 billion to jointly develop a blood thinner called apixaban. Apixaban is in the third and final stage of testing needed for U.S. regulatory approval.

With Associated Press and Providence Journal reports