Pfizer to Shut Down Four Hospira Distribution Centers
August 19, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
NEW YORK – Pfizer will eliminate four distribution sites the company gained through its $15 billion acquisition of Hospira, eliminating a total of 104 jobs.
A Pfizer spokesperson told Fierce Pharma that sites in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles and King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, which is just outside of Philadelphia, will be shuttered by the second quarter of 2017. The work handled by these four facilities will be shifted to Pfizer logistics centers in Memphis, Tennessee and Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. With the shuttering of the facilities, the job losses breakdown to 40 positions in Atlanta, 23 positions in Los Angeles, 19 in Dallas and 22 from the Pennsylvania site.
Kimberly Bencker, a spokesperson for Pfizer, told Fierce Pharma the decision to shutter the four legacy sites was part of an effort to increase company efficiency and reduce costs.
“As a result, we have decided to consolidate the logistics centers to enable us to be more efficient, improve our overall effectiveness, reduce costs and, generally be better able to competitively supply our products to our customers,” Bencker told Fierce Pharma in an email.
The closing of these four sites comes two months after Pfizer shut down another former Hospira facility – a Boulder, Colo. manufacturing facility. Pfizer said the Colorado facility was targeted for closure after an analysis of its sites showed the facility was being underutilized. The shuttering of the site will not happen immediately, but will gradually close operations over the next few years and completely shut down by 2019.
With the closing down of that facility, Pfizer eliminated 100 positions. In addition to the Colorado site, Pfizer gained several manufacturing facilities in the Hospira deal including sites in Austin, Texas, Buffalo, N.Y. and McPherson, Kansas.
Pfizer is in the midst of a restructuring that could see the company divide itself into multiple entities. Ultimately Pfizer could be comprised of three units—Global Innovation Products (GIP) business, and Vaccines Oncology and Consumer (VOC) business. Last year, Ian Read, chief executive officer of Pfizer, said a decision would likely be made at the end of 2016. He reiterated that earlier this year after the Allergan deal fell through. As it is currently structured, Pfizer has two primary units, Pfizer Essential Health, made up of the Global Established Products (GEP) division, and Pfizer Innovative Health, which has two units, Global Innovation Products (GIP) and Vaccines, Oncology and Consumer healthcare (VOC). The GEP accounts for a significant proportion of Pfizer’s annual revenue, but the GIP and VOC divisions are far more growth-based than the established products.
Although Pfizer has closed or is in the process of closing some of its legacy sites, the company has also planned a new manufacturing site. In June, the company broke ground on a new biologics clinical manufacturing plant in Andover, Mass. The 175,000-square-feet facility will be used to manufacture complex biologics and vaccines. The site is expected to be five stories tall and is projected to open by January 2019, about the same time the Boulder site will be winding down its operations. The company is planning to hire 75 new employees at the facility.