Dive Brief:
- Pfizer will lay off 104 staffers as part of a plan to shed four distribution sites it took over when it acquired Hospira, including 40 staffers in Atlanta, 19 in Dallas, 23 in Los Angeles, and 22 from King of Prussia, Pa. — two months after the drug giant said it will shutter a manufacturing facility in Boulder, Colo., by 2019, due to “underutilization.”
- Work performed at the four sites, which will close their doors in the second quarter of 2017, will move to Pfizer’s logistics centers in Memphis, Tenn., and Pleasant Prairie, Wis. Pfizer acquired Hospira for $15 billion in September 2015. The company, now a subsidiary of Pfizer, sold injectable drugs, infusion technologies and biosimilars.
- Pfizer said the closures are meant “to consolidate the logistics centers to enable us to be more efficient, improve our overall effectiveness, reduce costs, and generally be better able to competitively supply our products to our customers.”
Dive Insight:
Although Pfizer will continue to operate manufacturing sites in Austin, Texas; Buffalo, NY; and McPherson, Kan., that it attained after acquiring Hospira, the drug maker is currently undergoing a restructuring that could result in it being split into three distinct units.
In 2015, Pfizer CEO Ian Read said a decision could be made by the end of this year regarding the status of the company’s two existing units: Pfizer Essential Health, comprising the Global Established Products division, and Pfizer Innovative Health, which is composed of Global Innovation Products and Vaccines, Oncology and Consumer healthcare.
According to Pfizer, the Global Established Products division accounts for a "significant proportion" of Pfizer’s annual revenue, but the Global Innovation Products and Vaccines, Oncology and Consumer healthcare divisions are "far more growth-based than the established products."
In June, Pfizer broke ground in Andover, Mass., on what will become a biologics clinical manufacturing plant. The 175,000-square-feet facility, for which Pfizer will hire 75 employees, is projected to open by January 2019 — just as the site in Boulder closes its doors.