February 6, 2015
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline announced today that it will close the vaccine research and development facility in Hamilton, Mont., sometime this year. The company currently employs 2011 people in Hamilton, 27 of whom will be laid off.
In December 2014 the company announced it would begin major restructuring that would save over $1.6 billion in annual costs over a three-year period. The restructuring was going to have a three-pronged approach, including diversifying its global business, delivering more products of value, and simplifying its operating model.
The GSK site in Hamilton is the only manufacturing facility for monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL), an additive that improves vaccine efficacy. It is used in the company’s human papillomavirus vaccine and hepatitis B vaccine.
The company announced on Jan. 22, 2015 that it was laying off approximately 1,000 people in China this year. The company’s sales have slumped worldwide, but its China market has been particularly hard hit, at least partially related to a bribery scandal in that country.
China operations have reported a decrease of 61 percent in the first three quarters of 2013. Global revenue fell 11 percent in the first three quarters of 2014.
The company’s blockbuster asthma medication, Advair, has been facing stiff competition. Analysts have projected sales of the drug will drop by 30 percent this year. In 2013 GSK raked in $5.3 billion on Advair alone.
“Other parts of the business are facing similar restructuring,” GSK spokeswoman Melinda Stubbee said in a statement. “It’s happening companywide, not just Hamilton, but all parts of GSK’s business.”
The layoffs at the Hamilton site will not be in the manufacturing aspect of the site. No details have been offered regarding a timeline for the layoffs other than they will occur over the course of the year.
In 2008 and 2010 the company also laid off people at the Hamilton facility. In 2010 GSK laid off 19 employees. Both times the company’s workforce leveled out at about 200 people.
The company received a $240,000 state development grant in 2011 that was projected to create 32 new full-time jobs at the facility by 2013. Dubbed the Big Sky Economic Trust Fund, it created 26 new jobs by March 2013. The grant came during the Great Recession and was designed to help in the development of good-paying jobs for Montana residents. It also hoped to promote long-term economic growth in the state.
“GSK is an anchor community for Hamilton that provides a stable source of good-paying jobs with great benefits,” said Hamilton Mayor Jerry Steel in a statement in 2013. “Along with Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIH’s state-of-the-art biomedical facility in Hamilton, and GSK, our small town has a unique place in the high-tech world as well as offering a superior quality of life.”
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