Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. has begun construction on new research laboratories near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

MIT's campus newspaper The Tech said the offices are expected to be completed in about two years.

Two of Pfizer's research units, neuroscience and cardiovascular and endocrine disease, will be housed at the site once it is completed. Up until last summer, both units were stationed at Pfizer's campus in Groton.

The MIT newspaper said Pfizer's new facilities will be near other pharmaceutical research sites for major companies such as Novartis, Biogen Idec, Millennium Takeda Oncology Co. and Infinity Pharmaceuticals.

- Lee Howard