Today’s news report on the agreement for Pfizer Inc. to purchase Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $68 billion has caused considerable interest — and some concern — in Rockland. Wyeth’s Pearl River facility (referred to often as a “campus,” which fits its size) employs 3,100. It’s Rockland County’s largest employer.

The Pearl River facility has a storied past; it’s been the site of several medical breakthroughs in its more than 100 years of existence. The site was first home Lederle Antitoxin Laboratories, and in 1923 was where the first diptheria vaccine was developed. (Big roles in the research and development of polio vaccinations and is still the site where Prevnar, a vaccine to prevent pneumococcal disease, is made.)

The facility hasn’t been a “local” company, technically, since it was bought in the 1930s by American Cyanamid Co. It then was named Lederle Laboratories. In 1994, American Cyanamid merged with American Home Products Corp., and in 2002 American Home Products changed its name to Wyeth.

Many point to positives about the Pearl River site that could help protect workers there when it comes to the 19,000 expected layoffs (15 percent of the combined Pfizer/Wyeth work force). The manufacture of Prevnar here helps Pearl River employees. Also, that site hosts bio pharmaceutical research, which was one of the attractions Pfizer had to Wyeth, notes Rockland Business Association Executive Director Al Samuels. As well, Pearl River’s campus manufactures the popular Centrum vitamins, a big seller.

But, with any massive merger, only time (and likely longer than predicted time) will tell.

Samuels pointed out the extensive nonprofit support and charity work that emanates from the local Wyeth campus. In fact, Wyeth was the winner of the RBA’s Pinnacle Award for Corporate Citizenship.

In the current painful climate for nonprofits (from corporations cutting matching grants, to family foundations slammed by the Madoff scandal curbing gifts to companies cutting their charitable giving) a major change at a longtime corporation that’s been good to the nonprofit community is concerning. But, the corporate style of giving at Pfizer is unknown in these parts, Samuels said, and he’s not ready to be concerned about that kind of change.