Pfizer plans to lay off 170 researchers in Sanford and Morrisville as part of a larger restructuring that follows the drug maker's $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth last month.
Pfizer announced Monday that it is shutting down its research-and-development operations in six locations and eliminating up to 2,000 jobs. Such cost cuts are expected when big corporations merge and try to reduce expenses.
The local job cuts are roughly equally distributed between Sanford and Morrisville, company spokeswoman Kristen Neese said. The cuts affect scientists and technical workers, jobs that typically pay well.
The R&D operations will be phased out over the next year, leaving Pfizer with five research hubs and nine specialized sites around the world. The acquisition of Wyeth solidified Pfizer's spot as the world's largest pharmaceutical company.
"We have really built the very best from the two companies," Martin Mackay, president of R&D for pills and other traditional medicines, told The Associated Press.
Other big pharmaceutical companies have been cutting costs by slashing jobs as sales slow. London-based Glaxo SmithKline, which has its U.S. headquarters inResearch Triangle Park, has laid off hundreds of local workers.
The cuts Pfizer announced Monday don't affect itsmanufacturing operations in Sanford, which handles most of the work at the 1,000-person facility.
But the ultimate fate of that factory, which makes the childhood vaccine Prevnar, hasn't yet been decided. Pfizer is studying its manufacturing operations and expects to announce its plans for them over the next three to six months.
Hardship in Sanford
The announcement Monday was the latest in a series of setbacks for Sanford, and Lee County, where the September unemployment rate hit 13.5percent, above the state average.
"We are anxiously awaiting the day that the economy takes an upturn," Sanford Mayor Cornelia Olive said.
Two months ago, Hanesbrands announced that it was exiting the yarn-making business and closing its 150-worker Sanford facility. Gastonia-based Parkdale America closed its 81-employee Sanford plant in June.
The Pfizer plant in Sanford also laid off 124 workers last November, when it was still part of Wyeth. The plant was opened in 1987 by PraxisBiologics, a division of American Cyanamid that Wyeth later purchased.
Prior to Pfizer's acquisition of Wyeth, Pfizer had about 9,000 researchers and technicians, while Wyeth had about 4,500.
Deutsche Bank analyst Barbara Ryan wrote in a research report last month that Pfizer may slash about $3 billion in annual research spending, a 30 percent decline from what it and Wyeth spent in 2008. The company has been cutting jobs and narrowing its research focus to gird itself for 2011, when its top-selling cholesterol drug Lipitor could face competition from cheaper generics.
The closures will eliminate the jobs of roughly 15 percent of the company's scientists and laboratory technicians. Some employees are being asked to relocate.
The Associated Press and Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
