What Will Pfizer Do With 79 Manufacturing Sites? Part 2: The Answer

In February, we reported on Pfizer's plans for reconfiguring its global manufacturing network of 79 plants, following its recent acquisition of Wyeth. Now, we have the answer.

Pfizer will cease operations at eight manufacturing facilities, two of which are biotech plants (Shanbally, Ireland, and Pearl River, NY, which will remain a center for vaccine and biotech research). The company will make reductions at another six facilities, three of which (Andover, MA; Sanford, NC; and Havant, UK) include biotech operations. In total, the company will eliminate 6,000 jobs over the next several years; of those, just over 2,000 will be in biotechnology operations (Table 1).

Table 1. Of the 6,000 manufacturing jobs that Pfizer will eliminate in its consolidation following its acquisition of Wyeth, approximately 2,000 will be in biotechnology.

* Manufacturing operations at Pearl River will close, but R&D functions will remain.

The remaining job cuts will be in small-molecule solid-dose pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare manufacturing.

Tony Maddaluna, senior vice president of strategy and supply network transformation for Pfizer Global Manufacturing, recognizes that many people may wonder why Pfizer is trimming biotech operations, considering that Pfizer acquired Wyeth largely for its biologics and vaccine business. The answer, he said, is simple: the company must remain competitive.

“We need to optimize our network to be as cost competitive as possible,” he said. “We want to get ahead of the curve, to ensure that as biotechnology matures and cost pressures increase, we have a globally competitive make or buy network.”

Maddaluna says the company also looked for opportunities to simplify manufacturing processes. “For example, in some cases, multiple steps in the manufacture of certain vaccines were located at different sites, and we will now bring some of those steps together at the same site,” he said.

The company has not yet formulated a definitive strategy for how it will use its network of more than 250 suppliers. “We will probably continue to work with a similar number of providers, but fewer of them will be strategic suppliers,” said Maddaluna.

–Laura Bush

Related coverage:

Podcast: Pfizer´s Maddaluna on Integrating Wyeth´s Manufacturing Organization

http://biopharminternational.findpharma.com/biopharm/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=656086

What Will Pfizer Do With 79 Manufacturing Plants?Feb 12, 2010

http://biopharminternational.findpharma.com/biopharm/News/What-Will-Pfizer-Do-With-79-Manufacturing-Plants/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/656147