Pfizer exits NC jobs deal in Sanford as drugmaker announces larger cost cuts
North Carolina has pulled its economic incentive for the drug manufacturing giant Pfizer to hire hundreds of workers in the Lee County seat of Sanford.
The decision Wednesday arrived three months after the company asked out of its job development investment grant. In a Feb. 7 letter to the N.C. Economic Investment Committee, Pfizer tax director Amanda McCarthy cited “the current economic climate” for why her employer wouldn’t achieve its hiring or investment goals at the manufacturing facility it calls “Sanford North.”
Pfizer acquired this facility in 2023 from Abzena, a contract development and manufacturing organization, adding it to its existing Sanford operations. In purchasing the then-under-construction plant, Pfizer assumed the 2021 job development investment grant North Carolina had awarded Abzena to invest $213 million and create 325 jobs in the small but growing city southwest of Raleigh.
The new owner was optimistic about hiring; Pfizer initially said it expected to employ around 300 workers at the drug manufacturing site by this year. But last summer, the company informed staff it would move planned Sanford North operations to its other Sanford building.
Pfizer was eligible to receive up to $6.9 million from North Carolina if it had reached its hiring and investment targets, which including retaining more than 1,300 employees statewide. North Carolina paid out no money through this performance-based job development investment grant, or JDIG, which state records show created 108 positions in Sanford.
In an email to The News & Observer on Wednesday, Pfizer said the company combined the facilities to find efficiencies. “We remain very committed to our operations in North Carolina, and our existing Sanford site,” company spokesperson Steven Danehy said in an email.
Pfizer adds to cost cutting target after closing Triangle sites
Pfizer is a major regional employer, with large facilities in Sanford and Rocky Mount. Its local presence shrunk in 2023, however, when Pfizer confirmed it would shutter its Research Triangle Park office near Morrisville and a separate clinical manufacturing facility in Durham, which focused on gene therapy treatments.
Last month, the company announced it sought to cut an additional $1.2 billion — bringing its multiyear cost-savings target to $7.7 billion. Pfizer ended last year with 81,000 employees worldwide, down 8% from 2023.
“After years of falling Covid treatment sales, lukewarm drug launches and a fizzled-out weight-loss play, Pfizer is focusing on cost-cutting and reinvesting in new drug research in hopes that it can return to growth in three years,” Crain’s New York Business wrote of Pfizer’s latest savings plan.
Most JDIG recipients have not reached their original hiring goals since North Carolina launched the incentive program in 2003.
