January 14, 2015
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Lake Forest, Ill.-based Hospira, Inc. announced yesterday that it would be closing its facility in Clayton, N.C. in June. It will affect 250 employees, who can apply for other jobs with the company.
“The employees at the Clayton plant have made valuable contributions to the company and will continue to play important roles as we wind down operations in the coming months,” said Matt Stober, Hospira’s senior vice president for operations in a statement. “I’d like to thank them for their contributions and commitment to Hospira.”
Hospira employs about 17,000 worldwide, including approximately 3,000 at other facilities in North Carolina. The company currently manufactures four of its products at the Clayton plant, which will be transferred to other facilities, discontinued, sold or contracted out to other manufacturers.
The company will take pre-tax charges of $45 million as a result of the closure. About $22 million of that will be a non-cash charge in the fourth quarter of 2014. Hospira projects employee-related costs, including severance pay, of about $15 million.
Hospira’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said, in part, “This action results from extensive analysis of the plant, careful assessment of market needs for the products manufactured there, and available capacity within our operations network, and is part of the company’s ongoing optimization and modernization efforts.”
Hospira manufactures and supplies a broad range of hospital products, including specialty injectables, biosimilars, medication management systems, infusion therapy solutions and supplies and third-party contract manufacturing. Its brand products include the iSecure syringe, a pre-filled, ready-to-use, disposable syringe, biosimilars such as Inflectra (infliximab), Retacrit (epoetin zeta) and Nivestim (filgrastim). It also manufactures electronic infusion pumps such as Plum A+ and LifeCare PCA.
The company’s sales in 2013 hit about $4.1 billion. In addition to the facility in Clayton, Hospira operates five more facilities in the U.S., including Austin, Texas, Boulder, Colo., Buffalo, New York, McPherson, Ks., and Rocky Mount, N.C. It also operates facilities in Australia, India, Costa Rica, Italy, the Dominican Republic, Ireland and Croatia.
“It’s a set-back for our area, but only a temporary one,” said Clayton Mayor Jody McLeod in a statement. “Clayton has become a mini-hub of global pharmaceutical giants and we’re confident those companies will continue to expand and attract others to make their home in this community.”
Other companies with facilities in the Clayton area include Grifols and Novo Nordisk . The soon-to-be-abandoned Hospira facility is adjacent to a Grifols plant.
