Wyeth to cut 124 jobs in Sanford
The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area - by Chris Coletta
Pharmaceutical company Wyeth will lay off 124 workers at its facility in Sanford, a company spokesman confirmed Wednesday.
Wyeth spokesman Doug Petkus says the cuts represent about 10 percent of the jobs at the site, where Wyeth (NYSE: WYE) has more than 1,000 workers. The Sanford campus manufactures vaccines including Prevnar, which protects against common bacterial diseases.
Prevnar is one of Wyeth’s top-selling medicines, with revenue from the vaccine expected to top $3 billion in 2009.
The Sanford campus “does incredibly important work,” Petkus says. But Wyeth is going through a period of cost-cutting that will see the company shed roughly 10 percent of its global work force, or 5,000 jobs, over a long-term time frame.
Nearly every major drug company also is shedding jobs. The U.S. pharmaceutical industry faces struggles with patent expirations on some top-selling treatments and a dearth of new blockbusters coming out of the companies’ own R&D operations.
Various job functions were affected in the layoff, Petkus says. Affected workers will be given severance packages as well as job placement and counseling services.
Petkus also said he couldn’t rule out future cuts as Wyeth continues to adjust its cost structure.
“Clearly, we’re committed to that site,” Petkus says. “We’re committed to North Carolina.”
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