Irish plants latest casualty as Pfizer trims API manufacturing
manufacturing capacity and shut down plants as it announces the
closure and sale of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API)
facilities in Ireland.
Following an intense manufacturing review, Pfizer announced on Thursday that it plans to significantly reduce API manufacturing capacity over the next two years in a bid to better position itself to take advantage of 'evolving technologies' in pharmaceutical production.
The Irish plants affected by the latest decision are the Ringaskiddy site, part of which will be closed by the end of the year and result in the loss of 65 jobs, and the company's API manufacturing facility in Little Island which will have part of its API manufacturing capacity phased out in 2008 and 2009.
In addition to this, the entire Loughbeg API manufacturing site is also due to be phased out over the next two years - particularly significant as the firm only recently invested $90m (€69m) in an expansion at the plant, intended to facilitate production of the company's doomed cholesterol drug, torcetrapib.
Back in December Pfizer was forced to terminate all clinical trials of its anticipated wonder drug, as the Data Safety Monitoring Board reported an 'imbalance of mortality and cardiovascular events' in the trial subjects. Torcetrapib, to be administered in combination with Pfizer's blockbuster drug Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium), was intended as a cholesterol treatment and was portrayed as a the "most important new development in cardiovascular medicine in years."
The company initiated the largest clinical trial development programme ever at a cost of $800m and involving 25,000 patients, such was their confidence in the new drug candidate.
The enforced termination of the clinical trials and entire development programme was a bitter blow for the company, and "by far the most significant factor impacting future capacity demand in Ireland," said Terry Lambe, Pfizer's vice president of manufacturing for Ireland and Singapore.
The restructuring in Ireland is part of an effort by the company to cut API manufacturing by over 40 per cent, and it intends to sell the affected API operations at Little Island and Loughbeg as going concerns in a bid to preserve jobs at the sites.
The termination of the torcetrapib programme forced Pfizer to accelerate previously announced restructuring plans, focusing on core research and development, improving efficiency and cost-cutting. The company intends to realign its manufacturing operations around the world, reducing its global plant network by 50 per cent over a four-year period.
A few weeks after the news of the cancelled drug trial, Pfizer announced the successful sale of its consumer healthcare business to Johnson and Johnson for $16.6bn. This may have at least softened the blow of the torcetrapib disappointment, but would still seem to leave the company with a weaker pipeline considering its high expectations for the therapy and the fact that the patents for its best-seller Lipitor start to expire in 2010.
Lipitor is currently the most prescribed cholesterol-lowering therapy in the world, and in 2006 Pfizer reported actual sales of the drug totalling $12.9bn. The company also lost US exclusivity of antibiotic Zithromax (azithromycin) and antidepressant Zoloft (sertraline hydrochloride) during 2006, which had a significant revenue impact, according to the company.
"Our decision to discontinue development of torcetrapib/atorvastatin in early December 2006 was disappointing and brought into sharper focus the need to transform Pfizer over time to succeed in a dynamic healthcare marketplace," said Pfizer chairman and CEO, Jeffrey Kindler.
"We are reviewing every aspect of our business."
At the end of January, Pfizer gave details of comprehensive plans aimed at establishing a smaller and more flexible cost base. The programme includes the elimination of around 10,000 positions (around 10 per cent of its global workforce), and over 20 per cent reduction in the company's European field force.
In addition to this, the company intends to close manufacturing sites in New York and Nebraska, and is selling off a third site in Germany. In research and development, the company intends to close three research sites in the US and another two in Japan and France.
"These and other actions will allow us to reduce costs in support services and 'bricks and mortar' and to redeploy hundreds of millions of dollars into the discovery and development work of our scientists," said Pfizer's head of global research and development, Dr John LaMattina.
