A Pfizer spokesperson showed the staff reduction at Fox TV’s West Michigan partner, adding that it’s also part of the company’s cost-cutting initiative to better position it as its source of revenue going forward.
“Given the lower-than-expected use of our COVID-19 products (Comirnaty and Paxlovid), Pfizer has initiated a company-wide rate realignment program to help long-term earnings expectations,” the company spokesperson said. “As a result, we expect to impact approximately two hundred workers at our Kalamazoo, Michigan location. »
Friday’s news comes as Pfizer struggles to regain its monetary position after a sharp drop in its COVID-19 business. In its third-quarter earnings report last week, the company reported a profit of $13. 2 billion, down 42% from the same period last year. before. It’s the first time since 2019 that Pfizer posted a quarterly loss.
Contributing to this loss is mainly the antiviral treatment Paxlovid, whose sales fell by 97% compared to the third quarter of 2022. In addition, profits from its Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine fell 70% compared to the same quarter of the year. ‘Last year. This is more than enough to surpass Pfizer’s 10% expansion into non-COVID-19 products.
In a bid to address coronavirus-related sales of its business, Pfizer last month unveiled a sweeping cost-cutting initiative aimed at generating $3. 5 billion in savings through 2024. The company has since closed its plant in Peapack, New Jersey, which is expected to close to take effect in 2024.
At the time, a spokesperson told BioSpace that the maximum of the workers “will be reassigned to Pfizer’s headquarters in New York,” while some would be transferred to some other facility in New Jersey. Those who did not need to be transferred to another facility will be dismissed.
Pfizer is also closing two other production sites, one in Durham and another in Morrisville, according to a report last week in the Triangle Business Journal. Meanwhile, a WARN report from Colorado in early October 2023 also revealed that Pfizer laid off an undisclosed number. of workers at its Boulder production facility, effective December 4, 2023.
Other large biopharmaceutical corporations have also made layoffs recently, such as Amgen, which laid off 350 workers after buying Horizon for about $28 billion. The layoffs occurred primarily in those who hold positions that overlap with those existing at Amgen. Biogen is also laying off 113 workers at Reata Pharmaceuticals following its $7. 3 billion acquisition. They are expected to go into effect in November 2023 and at the Reata site in Texas.
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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