Venezuela restates threat to seize Pfizer plant
pharmafile | August 27, 2009 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Sales and Marketing | Pfizer, South America
The wrangling over Pfizer's manufacturing facility in Venezuela is continuing, with a senior official reiterating a threat to seize control of the plant within days if an agreement cannot be reached.
In June, Venezuelan trade minister Eduardo Saman said the government could take over a plant in Valencia, Carabobo state, that was closed down in June as part of Pfizer's global reorganisation of manufacturing.
At the time Pfizer said it had taken the step in order to consolidate all production in Venezuela at another facility in Valencia, but would be prepared to sell the plant to the government as a going concern.
Late last week, Saman told local reporters that Pfizer had no intention of selling the plant but wanted to permanently close it in order to avoid domestic competition for its imported products, according to a report in the newspaper El Diario Exterior.
He said that the plant made essential drugs that should continue to be made within Venezuela, and that Pfizer had acted outside the law in closing the plant.
For its part, Pfizer says it has transferred production of these medicines to its other facility in Valencia, and was still keen to negotiate a sale, either with the Venezuelan government or a third party.
Products made at the plant ahead of its closure include the antihypertensive medication Norvasc/Istin (amlodipine) and antibiotic products Zithromax (azithromycin) and Unasyn (ampicillin and sulbactam).
Saman said another meeting is scheduled to take place between the government and Pfizer sometime this week, but that the plant could be seized within a few days if no agreement can be reached, according to the newspaper. The Minister indicated he would not be attending the meetings himself.
Venezuela's government under President Hugo Chavez has no qualms about enforced nationalisation of private enterprises, having already taken iron and steel companies, coffee producers, food processors, electricity and oil companies into public ownership.
Meanwhile, Pfizer says a $17 million back-tax claim levied by the Venezuelan government is unrelated to the affair and stems from an audit of the company's accounts in the wake of various company acquisitions, including its takeover of Pharmacia in 2003.
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