The easing in activity is part of Pfizer’s sweeping cost-cutting plan announced last month, which will allow the company to generate $3. 5 billion in savings through 2024. At the time, the company noted that the “cost realigning” initiative would come with layoffs around the world. In its global operations, the exact number of workers affected is still unknown.
Local news outlet Kent Online reported that Tuesday’s layoffs were also part of a layoff consultation program on Sandwich’s site.
In an email to Fierce Pharma, a Pfizer spokesperson said the Sandwich plant would remain operational, albeit “at a different size. “The UK plant has recently had 940 employees.
This is Pfizer’s newest site to be hit by layoffs. Last week, the company laid off around 100 workers at a production plant in Newbridge, Klicare, Ireland, according to the Irish Independent, noting that some affected workers could be transferred to other roles, especially as the company will create 230 positions. elsewhere in Ireland, according to an RTE report.
A week earlier, Pfizer laid off about 200 workers at a production plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Pfizer also announced the closure of its Peapack, New Jersey, plant, which is expected to go into effect in early 2024, along with two other production plants in Durham and Morrisville. A WARNING notice filed in early October 2023 also states that Pfizer plans to lay off an undisclosed number of workers at its Boulder, Colorado, facility beginning Dec. 4, 2023.
The layoffs come as Pfizer suffers its first quarterly loss since 2019, largely due to a sharp drop in COVID-19-related sales. In its third-quarter monetary report, the pharmaceutical company reported profit of $13. 2 billion, down 42% from the same time a year earlier.
Pfizer’s coronavirus antiviral treatment, Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir/ritonavir), saw sales drop 97% in the third quarter of 2023 to the same time in 2022, while sales of its Comirnaty vaccine fell 70%. These numbers were more than enough to offset Pfizer’s 10% expansion on similar non-COVID-19 products.
Tristan Manalac is an independent scientist based in Metro Manila, Philippines. He can be reached at tristan@tristanmanalac. com or tristan. manalac@biospace. com.
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