Pfizer gives notice of staff cuts at former Wyeth plant
pharmafile | December 14, 2009 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Pfizer, US
Pfizer says it will cut around 200 staff at its Pearl River manufacturing facility in New York, US, according to documents filed with the US Department of Labor.
The drugmaker has been steadily downsizing and consolidating its manufacturing operations since it completed its $68 billion merger with Wyeth on October 15.
The Pearl River site was among Wyeth’s largest manufacturing facilities and currently employs over 2,900 workers, and the official figure of 200 layoffs is much lower than earlier estimates that 600-700 staff would face the chop.
Some 18 months ago the site was claiming around 3,200 employees, and Wyeth had already been trimming back staff in advance of the merger.
Under state legislation companies are obliged to file a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) giving 90 day’s notice of plant closures and redundancies if the number of layoffs at a commercial site exceeds a threshold number or percentage.
Local press reports had suggested ahead of the WARN that Pfizer had been laying off staff in smaller increments to avoid having to make an official announcement of the cutbacks.
The Pearl River site manufactures the Prevnar infant pneumococcal vaccine, Mylotarg (gemtuzumab ozogamicin), which is used to treat a form of acute myeloid leukaemia, and some consumer health products including the Centrum family of multivitamins. The site houses a 150,000 sq. ft. bioprocessing plant.
Pfizer revealed in October that it would close down its own unit in Bridgwater, New Jersey, and Wyeth’s Great Valley offices and two facilities in Collegeville, Pennsylvania.
At the time chief financial officer Frank D’Amelio said that additional decisions on manufacturing and R&D downsizing would take place before April 2010.
Last month, Pfizer said in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) that it had laid off a total of 26,200 employees since 2005 and intends to cut 30,900 by 2012. In the first nine months of the year it had reduced its headcount by around 6,500.
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