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MARKET INTEL by PharmaCompass
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By PharmaCompass
2019-01-17
Impressions: 121 Article
Several companies rang in the new year by announcing plant shutdowns and job cuts. First there was news from AstraZeneca which is looking to streamline its biologics production. The British drug major is closing two plants in Colorado and laying off 210 workers stationed there.
According to a Worker Readjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notice posted on the Colorado government’s website, Astra plans to close facilities in Boulder and Longmont. The shutdowns are part of a global revamp designed to make its biologics supply chain more efficient.
Second, Pfizer is cutting 150 staffers at two sites in Lake Forest (Illinois, US) and Chennai (India) and ending development of five preclinical programs. Importantly, Pfizer is taking the ax to its preclinical R&D group for biosimilars.
“We’re not exiting biosimilars or anything like that,” says the spokesperson, who emphasized that the pharma giant has three biosimilars on the market and five in mid to late-stage development.
Both the R&D groups affected by the cuts were inherited in the US$ 15 billion buyout of Hospira in 2015, which put Pfizer in the biosimilars business. Last week, Pfizer had announced it was closing down two troubled manufacturing facilities in India acquired in the Hospira acquisition.
Third, Eli Lilly is cutting 250 jobs in France as part of a ‘modernization’ effort at a plant in Fegersheim. The cuts will come through a ‘voluntary exit plan’ that Lilly will negotiate with local unions and will take place through the end of 2020, a company spokesperson said. The site produces insulins and oncology drugs and employs about 1,550 people. Recently, Boehringer Ingelheim and Sanofi had announced job cuts in France.
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