Manufacturing activity in Big Pharma
Pfizer. Pfizer announced plans earlier this year to reduce its workforce by 10%, exit five manufacturing facilities, rationalize
R&D operations, and restructure its US pharmaceutical operations. The announcement comes as the company expects its 2007 and
2008 revenues to be comparable to 2006 levels.
Since the Pharmacia integration begun in 2003, Pfizer has been reducing the number of its plants to bring capacity in line
with product demand, to eliminate duplication, and to improve manufacturing efficiency. By the end of 2009, the number of
global plants will have been cut by almost 50%, from 93 to 47. This reduction includes rationalization of its internal manufacturing
networks and the sites included in the sale of its consumer healthcare business to J&J.
In February, Pfizer reported it would close a portion of its active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) plant at Ringaskiddy,
Ireland, and would pursue the sales of its API facility in Loughbeg, Ireland, a portion of the API manufacturing facility
in Little Island, Ireland, and a facility for sterile liquids in Nerviano, Italy, subject to consultation with works councils
and local labor laws.
In January, Pfizer reported plans to close its manufacturing sites for solid-dosage drug production and packaging in Brooklyn,
New York, and for animal-health sterile products in Omaha, Nebraska. It also plans to sell its combined API and drug-product
operations in Feucht, Germany, subject to consultation with works councils and local labor laws. Pfizer also is phasing out
a manufacturing facility in Groton, Connecticut. The plant makes APIs for human- and animal-health products, and the manufacture
of those products will be transferred to other plants.
In 2006, Pfizer sold four facilities: a sterile production and API facility in Cruce Dávila, Puerto Rico, to Abraxis Biosciences,
Inc. (Los Angeles, CA); an API facility in Augusta, Georgia, to Xethanol Corp. (New York); an API and finished-drug manufacturing
plant in Uppsala, Sweden to Kemwell Pvt. Ltd. (Bangalore, India); and its API, finished dosage, and packaging facility in
Morpeth, United Kingdom, to NPIL Pharma (Mumbai, India).
The Wyeth Biotech Campus Grange Castle, Ireland
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Pfizer also sold its drug-product production and packaging facilities in Angers and Val de Reuil, France, to Farvea. During
the next two to three years, Pfizer plans to exit an API and finished-drug manufacturing facility in Arecibo, Puerto Rico;
a drug-product manufacturing and packaging facility in Arnprior, Ontario, Canada; an animal-health premix facility in Orangeville,
Ontario, Canada; a liquid-filling operation in Bangkok, Thailand; animal-health premix operations in Bou Ismail, Algeria and
Corby, United Kingdom; an API plant in Holland, Michigan; and finished-product plants in the following: Jakarta, Indonesia;
Islamabad, Pakistan; Seoul, South Korea; Tlalpan, Mexico; Upper Merion, Pennsylvania; and Malardalen and Stockholm, Sweden.
Many of these sites have already exited the network, and the remainder will exit over the ensuing two to three years, depending
on works council consultation, product transfers, and regulatory approvals. Pfizer also streamlined operations at its drug-product,
distribution, and fermentation operations in Sandwich, United Kingdom.
The sale of Pfizer's consumer healthcare business to J&J included finished-drug product plants in Parsippany, New Jersey;
Lititz, Pennsylvania; Caringbah, Australia; Cali, Colombia; Orleans, France; Cape Town, South Africa; and Helsingborg, Sweden,
as well as an associated gum-production operation in Esbjerg, Denmark.
Pfizer is planning to close its Ann Arbor, Esperion, and Kalamazoo, Michigan, research sites, but will continue to maintain
a large manufacturing and animal-health presence in Kalamazoo. It is also proposing to close research sites in Nagoya, Japan,
and Amboise, France, subject to consultation with works councils and local labor laws.
As it has rationalized facilities, Pfizer acquired from Sanofi-Aventis the Frankfurt, Germany, insulin-production business
and facilities it previously had owned jointly with Sanofi-Aventis as part of its $1.4-billion acquisition of the rights to
manufacture and sell "Exubera" inhaled insulin.
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