GlaxoSmithKline review leads to 121 layoffs in Cork
pharmafile | October 7, 2010 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â GlaxoSmithKline, Ireland, job cutsÂ
GlaxoSmithKline has completed its review of a manufacturing facility in Ireland and concluded that it will have to shed 121 staff from its 450-plus workforce.
Workers at the plant in Currabinny, Cork, have been waiting anxiously for the outcome of the review, which was initiated in May this year as part of a global restructuring exercise with the aim of cutting 3,000 jobs across the group.
The Irish Times reports that 55 of the redundancies are a direct result of the review, while a further 66 jobs will go as a result of changes to shift patterns at the plant.
All of the job cuts will be among production staff, said GSK vice president and site director Finbar Whyte, who confirmed earlier reports that 90 staff working at an R&D unit at Currabinny are unaffected.
Currabinny benefitted from a major 250 million-euro investment programme by GSK earlier in the decade and employed upwards of 650 staff a few years ago, but since 2008 has been hit by reduced demand for its products and cost-cutting.
While the plant produces ingredients for a number of drugs, including GSK’s fast-growing breast cancer drug Tyverb (lapatinib), it also makes some older products for which demand has started to decline.
For example, Currabinny was GSK’s primary manufacturing site for rosiglitazone, the active ingredient in diabetes drug Avandia. The drug was once a $3 billion-plus brand for GSK but has seen its sales hit hard by safety concerns over recent years, culminating in its suspension from the European market last month and severe restrictions on its distribution in the US.
Production of the active ingredient was suspended at Currabinny in 2008 as a result of dwindling demand. In the same year a first round of job cuts led to 100 redundancies.
GSK said the latest round of reductions would help ensure the long-term viability of Currabinny within its manufacturing network.
Phil Taylor
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