Concerted efforts are under way to save up to 500 jobs in Cork after US drugs multinational Pfizer announced plans yesterday to scale back its Irish operations.
IDA Ireland is to assist the company in attempting to secure buyers for two of its units, employing 480, which are to be placed on the market as going concerns. A further 65 jobs at a third plant are to be made redundant.
Pfizer said it had no option but to shed the jobs after a new drug for cholesterol proved dangerous in medical tests. The company told staff at meetings yesterday morning that it will cut 65 jobs at its Ringaskiddy site before the end of this year. The group also wants to sell off part of its plant at Loughbeg, which employs 300, and part of its Little Island plant, which employs 180.
The development is the second big employment setback in Cork in a week following the announcement that US mobile phone giant Motorola is likely to shed 350 jobs.
Government sources said the Pfizer sites would be suited to companies that make unbranded generic drugs.
"These are difficult times for the workers and their families. The Government's priority, together with the IDA, is to save these 480 jobs by supporting Pfizer in its efforts to secure the sale of the plants," said Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin.
The Minister expressed some confidence in the possibility of a sale, noting that Pfizer vice-president Terry Lambe "pointed out that the company has successfully sold on such plants in the past".
Pfizer is understood to have received €200 million in State grants in the past year for a big new investment project in Dún Laoghaire and a smaller project in Cork. There is no threat to this grant aid as both initiatives are going ahead.
The threat to the jobs was criticised by Opposition politicians.
"This scale of job losses in Cork is something that we have not seen for years. What is most concerning is that these are job losses in a high-skilled area; they are the kind of jobs we need to be attracting to Ireland, not losing," said Fine Gael TD and MEP Simon Coveney.
"We must ask the hard questions of Government about whether Ireland is no longer being seen as a competitive destination for doing business for large multinationals."
However, Pfizer's chief spokeswoman said business costs were not the prime factor behind the group's decision.
"Cost is a factor but it certainly is not the overriding one," she said. She also pointed out that Pfizer's other Irish operations will continue to produce 33 per cent of its entire drug supply worldwide.
Paul Duffy, site leader at the Ringaskiddy plant, said one of the four manufacturing buildings there will close this year.
The Loughbeg plant will be sold in 2008 and the Little Island sale is scheduled for 2009.
Pfizer, which employs more than 2,300 people in Ireland, opened the Ringaskiddy plant in 1972. About 1,800 staff are employed in manufacturing at four plants in Cork and one in Dún Laoghaire. Another 500 are involved in support and financial services in Dublin.
Pfizer also suffered "a big hit" last December when it withdrew its experimental cholesterol drug, torcetrapib, from clinical trials. The drug was found to increase the risk of death. This was a big setback for Pfizer as it hoped that torcetrapib would replace its biggest-selling drug, lipitor, which comes off patent in 2010. Pfizer said that 40 per cent of its API manufacturing capacity in Cork would have been used to make torcetrapib.
Dr Duffy stressed that neither the company's tablet manufacturing plant at Loughbeg, which employs 200 people, nor the remainder of its facility at Little Island, where a further 200 people are employed, would be affected by the restructuring.