The first of the pink slips at Sandoz’ generic-drug manufacturing facility in Broomfield, Colo. have been handed out.
The first of the pink slips at Sandoz’ generic-drug manufacturing facility in Broomfield, Colo. have been handed out. The company issued 65 layoff notices this week, BizWest reported, citing a WARN notice filed with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
Sandoz, Novartis’ generics division, announced its intentions to close the Colorado facility last fall and relocate the operations to a facility in Wilson, N.C. The shift of operations is expected to occur by the end of 2019. As it closes the Colorado facility, Sandoz is expected to lay off about 450 employees. The letter was filed with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment on Feb. 6.
Sandoz’s parent company Novartis announced plans to restructure and consolidate its manufacturing sites last year. The company’s aim is to optimize capacity planning and improve efficiency. Novartis has 67 manufacturing sites. Of those, 40 are under the Sandoz division.
Citing the WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) notice, BizWest said the layoffs are expected to begin April 7 and take place over a 14-day period. The total number of layoffs are expected to occur in three waves through 2019 when the plant will be shuttered. The first wave of job cuts includes four lead production technicians and 37 production technicians, among others, BizWest said.
Employees facing the loss of their job in Colorado will be provided with severance packages and job placement assistance, Sandoz said in October. Additionally, employees can apply for other open positions at Novartis.
When Sandoz announced the closure of the Broomfield site in October, it noted a number of reasons. Sandoz said that “double-digit price erosion caused by customer consolidation and increased competition taking place within the U.S. generic drug market” directly led to above-average pricing pressure in the United States, BioSpace initially reported in October.
“While this was a strategic choice made to optimize our manufacturing infrastructure, it was a very difficult decision as the closure affects approximately 450 employees at the Broomfield site,” the company added.
The Colorado facility specialized in the manufacture of oral solid drugs. Some of the drugs made at the Brookfield site were no longer commercially competitive due to “saturated markets,” Sandoz said. Approximately half of the products made at the Broomfield site were no longer seen as competitive and were being discontinued, a company spokesperson said at the time the announcement was made.
Sandoz’s Wilson, N.C. manufacturing facility has several open positions, including a director of supply chain management, packaging technicians and manager of quality assurance/ quality control compliance.
