Job losses at Pfizer plants

By Finnian Cox

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has announced that more than 200 jobs are to be cut from their Irish manufacturing facilities, as a part of a global cost-cutting scheme.

Up to 210 jobs will be cut across three of the company’s Irish plants, at Ringaskiddy in Cork, Grange Castle in Dublin, and Newbridge in Kildare.

Beginning at the end of this year, the layoffs will continue into 2025 and will be a mixture of voluntary and targeted redundancies.

Around 5,000 people in Ireland are employed by Pfizer, with this latest round of redundancies adding up to roughly 4% of the total workforce.

The decision marks the second round of layoffs from the company in 12 months, following on from 100 jobs lost at the Newbridge plant last November.

A spokesperson from the company said cutting jobs was a ‘last resort’, and that it was actively engaging with colleagues and their representatives.

The spokesperson also said that the company had done everything they could to reduce costs elsewhere.

This most-recent cost cutting programme was announced in May, and aims to save the company $1.5 billion internationally, a continuation from a similar plan in 2023 which aimed to make $3.5 billion worth of cuts.

The cuts have been made in response to a collapse in sales of its Paxlovid Covid antiviral medicine, which Ringaskiddy and Newbridge are involved in the production of.

This is also coupled with competition from other pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk regarding the development of obesity-therapy treatments.

The first Irish Pfizer site was established in Ringaskiddy in 1969, with over $8 billion being invested across the company’s five Irish locations since.

The details of a redundancy package are yet to be announced, however last year saw the Newbridge redundancies receive 6 weeks’ pay for each year of service, as well as 2 weeks of pay.