GSK workers in Ireland await review
pharmafile | September 20, 2010 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Research and Development |Â Â GlaxoSmithKline, Ireland, job cutsÂ
Workers at a GlaxoSmithKline facility in Ireland are anxiously awaiting the outcome of an official review of the operation amid fears that further job cuts could be on the way.
GSK initiated the review of the plant in Currabinny, Cork, as part of a global restructuring exercise announced earlier this year which could see another 3,000 job cuts across the group. The last round of GSK cuts finalised in 2009 saw 6,000 jobs axed, including 100 staff at Currabinny.
A report in the Irish Independent notes that 425 people are employed at the plant and that the company’s review is focusing on production rather than R&D staff. All told GSK employs 1,400 people in Cork, Waterford and Dublin, and the only plant under scrutiny is the one in Cork.
The review of Currabinny is said to be near completion and consultations with staff should begin before the end of the year.
The facility produces ingredients for a number of drugs, including GSK’s fast-growing breast cancer drug Tykerb, which was first launched in 2008 and pulled in around £110 million in the first six months of 2010, 45% up on the same period a year earlier. However, the plant also makes a number of older products for which demand has started to decline.
That staff at the GSK facility have the jitters is unsurprising, given that this month has already seen 160 jobs go at Schering-Plough’s facility in Brinny, also in County Cork.
Meanwhile, Pfizer revealed plans to close eight manufacturing site worldwide in May, including two plants in Cork (Loughbeg and Shanbally). Local press reports have suggested that 785 jobs will be lost as a result.
Ireland depends heavily on the pharmaceutical sector, which generated over 50% of Irish exports, worth some 44 billion euros, in 2008, according to figures published earlier this year by the trade association PharmaChemical Ireland.
Phil Taylor
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