Watson pulls out of injectables manufacturing
manufacturing plant and pulling out of this market segment
altogether. The Company is now establishing contract manufacturing
agreements to take over the 15 products affected.
Based in Phoenix, Arizona, the facility currently manufactures a total of fifteen injectable products for general hospital use - seven of Watson's own products and eight under contract for other companies.
The Phoenix facility is the only sterile injectable manufacturing operation owned by Watson and was acquired in 2000 as part of the company's acquisition of Schein Pharmaceutical.
However, the plant has been running below capacity and company spokesperson Tom Rousillo told Outsourcing-Pharma.com that the decision to sell stems from there "not being enough business in injectables for the company."
Rejecting the suggestion that business is slowing down in this segment, Rousillo put the plant's poor performance down to "injectables not being our expertise and not part of our core business."
"We don't want to pursue this part of the market any longer," he said.
Watson is now looking for a buyer for the facility, which employs roughly 230 people, and has been "experiencing a huge amount of interest," said Rousillo.
"We hope and expect to save jobs."
However, if a suitable buyer is not found in time, Watson plans to close the plant by the end of the second quarter in 2007.
In winding down the operation, Watson has already outsourced the production of its own seven products to two other undisclosed contract manufacturers.
Depending on the outcome of the sale, and the plans that a new owner would have for the plant, Watson is now looking for other potential contract manufacturers to make the remaining eight contracted products.
This is the second plant that Watson has shed since the Schein Pharmaceutical acquisition. The company announced the closure of another facility in Puerto Rico and the loss of 315 jobs, in a move towards "consolidation," said Rousillo.
