Drug Maker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited Laying Off 200 Irvine Workers

Orange County Business Journal -- Israeli drug maker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. said Monday it is cutting 200 jobs at its Irvine operation.

The Israeli drug maker said 195 of those jobs would be cut as of Feb. 6, according to a report in the Orange County Register.

Teva spokeswoman Denise Bradley said that the jobs that were being cut were production jobs and support staff in Irvine.

She said that the plant, in the Irvine Spectrum, had been under a voluntary manufacturing and distribution hold since last April.

Teva got its Irvine facility through its 2003 purchase of generic drug maker Sicor Inc. for $3.4 billion.

Last year, Teva laid off 70 workers in Irvine after it stopped producing propofol, a sedative that gained notoriety in the death of Michael Jackson.\

Teva, whose version of propofol wasn’t involved in the Jackson case, stopped making that drug because it was hard to make and it gained little or no profit from it.

The drug maker had other issues with propofol, including a 2009 production stoppage and recall after high levels of toxins were found in vials of the drug made in Irvine.