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PHARMACEUTICAL GIANT PFIZER has confirmed that 177 jobs are to be cut at two of its manufacturing plants in Co Cork throughout next year.
Staff were told this morning that the jobs will be lost through 2013 at its plants in Ringaskiddy and Little Island, subject to consultation.
“This is in response to reduced volumes of medicines manufactured at these sites and the need to re-scale operations appropriately,” the company said this morning in a statement.
The company said the expiration of its patents on the anti-cholesterol drug Atorvastatin – better known by its commercial brand, Lipitor – had meant a global decline in its demand.
Sales of the drug have fallen in recent months after the drug’s patent expired in the United States late last year and within the European Union last month – meaning it is now possible for other companies to produce cheaper generic equivalents.
Patent expiry means greater competition which impacts global demand, and we need to readjust the scale of our manufacturing operations,” Pfizer vice-president Dr Paul Duffy said, insisting that Ireland remained a ”key strategic location” with a dozen sites around the country.
Seamus Fives, the site leader at the Little Island and Ringaskiddy sites, said the decision to downsize the operations was “very difficult”.
“Little Island and Ringaskiddy are important sites within the Pfizer manufacturing network and all our colleagues deserve recognition for the great contribution they have made to manufacturing some of Pfizer’s leading medicines,” he said.
Fives explained that the expiry of a patent had two effects – as the manufacturing volume required reduces significantly, while the presence of a larger number of competitors means the costs of manufacturing must also be reduced in order to remain competitive.”
Bloomberg has previously estimated that Lipitor’s sales could be halved once its worldwide patents on the drug expire.
The move means Pfizer is cutting its Cork workforce by a fifth – around 900 of its 4,000 Irish staff work in Cork. Pfizer had already laid off around 30 sales staff in December following the expiry of the US patent.
The company also operates manufacturing plants at Grange Castle in Dublin, Newbridge, Askeaton in Limerick, and at Loughbeg in Cork. It also has administrative operations at Citywest and Ringsend.
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This is not new news. Employees and people in cork knew that this was coming down the line for the past 18mths. I know plenty that are planning on taking redundancy and are happy to do so as they are earning decent salaries, and many have been in the job a long time and are looking forward to nice fat redundancy cheques. Good luck to them I say.
So, not necessarily hard times you say, it might well be the end of hard times.
So , if as you say ”Employees and people in cork knew that this was coming down the line for the past 18mths.”… Why did the government not ”do ” something to prevent it ,or why was it not announced before the vote last Thursday ?
I will tell you why and that is the same reason Irish Rails job losses were not announce because the government knew it would have effected the way people would have subsequently voted. The same way they announced all the new jobs , which in fairnes will probably not come to anything til 2015.
If those people, in pfizer, get a good redundancy package I would take it too and run…
Susie, please don’t ask sensible questions. The Ffg/Labour auto-bots cannot process sensible questions. Their supreme leader is infallible.
Susie read the article. The patent on one of their main drugs is running out. They can’t afford to keep producing it against rivals who will make it on the cheap. What do you want the government to do exactly ?
Susie, Lipitor came off patent here. It is no longer viable for pfizer to manufacture it, as all the generics can do it now.
This brings the cost of a medicine down, albeit at the cost of those jobs.
Pharma is a huge industry in cork, especially in little island and ringaskiddy. Experienced pharmacutical workers are in demand down here. Those workers will get reducdancy packs, and shouldn’t have much difficulty picking up a new job in one of the many other tabletting plants nearby.
What do you think the govt should “do” in this situation? To me it looks like the timeline of normal pharma business.
Hopefully a new drug will be produced at the plant between now and next year and the jobs could be saved.
Good points Susie yet again.
Vote Yes for Jobs
And a no vote would have preserved the patents on drugs produced in Ireland? This news has absolutely nothing to do with any government or EU change to the business environment in Ireland.
Oh I know that – you see before I made up my mind on which way I was going to vote. Every single job announcement on this website was followed with the Vote yes for jobs when they had nothing to do with “any government or EU change to the business environment in Ireland”, so using the same illogical logic I say “Vote Yes for Jobs” now.
Terrible news…
While I voted no this has nothing to do with treaties just as a previous poster said the patents hav run out and it’s now an open market.
It may mean that with patents expiring the price will go down thus demand may rise in areas where they previously it was not bought.
No sign of Enda Kenny or Richard Bruton! I mean Enda was first to get his face in when a whole 40 new jobs were being announce a couple of weeks ago!
What can he do that’s beyond his power
Peter, according to your logic, its OK for Enda to do photo ops when jobs are announced, and its doubly OK for Enda to scurry away into some hole when Job losses are announced. Damn the FFg/Labour auto-bots are simply sickening. Its solidarity that the people want to see, not some moron who only shows up to get his Photo in the papers and news when job announcements are made, He is a lieing, obnoxious traitor, who wouldnt debate the referendum, but is happy to be seen anywhere that makes him look ‘good’.
Cal, local TD Simon Coveney has been out today to express his regret at the job losses.
The only thing this has to do with the treaty is the timing of the announcement, like with Dublin bus. Openness and transparency alright!
Good luck to all effected.
Generic = cheaper,so every cloud eh
This was always on the cards as the life cycle of Lipitor was coming to an end and as others have said it was known 18 months ago. It is also the reason why the pharma companies are looking towards biopharma as a solution to the problem of patent expiration due to the complexities of producing generic or bio-similar drugs even if the patent has finished.
One thing the health boards can do, is to make sure that the cheaper generic medicines, which will be prescribed, are manufactured in Ireland.
A sad day
Expect more of this, alot more. To all those in the HSE wishing to push down drug prices to ridiculous levels there will be consequences to your actions. Generic substitution and more importantly reference pricing at the dispensing end in no way guarantee that the generics the government pays for are actually manufactured here, probably the contrary in fact. This doesn’t even begin to address drug “shortages” which in actuality are simply manufacturers diverting supply to more profitable larger markets than Ireland.
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