Teva’s Runcorn facility, near Liverpool in the UK, makes sterile products for use in the treatment of respiratory conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), primarily for export to the US.
Denise Bradley a spokesperson for the generic drugmaker told us the site is being assessed as part an ongoing reassessment of it pharmaceutical production network.
“The transformation we are undertaking requires investment in the skills and capabilities of our employees on the Runcorn site, building their technical expertise, and increasing the number of specialist roles in order to support the greater use of technology and automation now required in complex drug process development and manufacture,” she told in-Pharmatechnologist.com.
The plans would involve the potential loss of around 80 positions, she continued, though around twenty new specialist roles would be created, “reflecting the overall upskilling of the site.”
She added: “During the consultation period Teva will endeavour to mitigate the number of roles potentially lost and wherever possible to source suitable alternative redeployment opportunities within Teva for colleagues at risk of redundancy.”
Teva has been restructuring since 2013, looking at saving around $2bn annually by 2017. The firm has also been resolute about investing in its complex generics production network and specialist technology platforms.
Among the drugs made at Runcorn, Bradley said, is a Teva “leading medicine for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS).”
Teva’s blockbuster specialty MS drug Copaxone (glatiramer acetate inection) lost its exclusivity in 2014 but since then the firm has seen a thrice-weekly reformulation of the product approved by the US FDA.