This weekend, the Costa Rican Times reported GlaxoSmithKline is abandoning the Central American country with plans to shutter its manufacturing facility in the capital San José by 2019.
And a spokesperson from GSK confirmed to in-Pharmatechnologist.com that this is the case.
“GSK regularly reviews its manufacturing strategy network to ensure we have the right production capacity in place to support its patients and consumers, meet market demand and maximise productivity,” we were told.
“As a consequence of this, GSK has decided to close its manufacturing site in San José site located in Sabanilla, Costa Rica. This was not an easy decision but necessary to ensure the long-term viability of the business.”
Around 60 jobs are expected to be lost, though the firm told us the “priority is supporting impact employees through this process,” and would look for relocation opportunities for employees across other GSK operations.
The site itself is run by GlaxoSmithKline Costa Rica S.A. which operates as a subsidiary of the UK-headquartered Big Pharma firm.
According to the firm it manufactures and packages the consumer healthcare products Panadol (paracetamol) in liquid form, and soluble effervescent sachet antacid products (Eno and Andrews) for the Latin America and Caribbean markets.
Production of these will be transferred “to other appropriate sites,” the spokesperson said.