Up to 30 staff to lose jobs at Pfizer

UP TO 30 medical sales jobs are to go at Pfizer’s Irish operations, as the company prepares for one of its key products, Lipitor, coming off patent in Europe next summer.

The cholesterol-lowering drug – the largest selling prescription drug in history – came off patent in the US at the end of last month.

Redundancies are to start in January.

A spokeswoman for the company confirmed that “between 20 and 30” staff, who sell products to GPs and hospitals, are to lose their jobs.

While the expected drop in sales of Lipitor was one of the reasons for the job losses, she said that a “much tougher business environment”, and a downward pressure on prices due to Government measures, were also behind the decision.

Pfizer, which employs 4,300 people in Ireland in eight sites around the State, has already put its Loughbeg plant in Cork, where Lipitor is manufactured, on the market.

Earlier this year US company BioMarin took over Pfizer’s Shanbally plant in Cork in a $50 million deal. While 200 jobs are to be created, the 65 existing staff did not automatically transfer to the new owners.

Another US biopharma business, Amgen, has taken over the Pfizer plant at Pottery Road in Dún Laoghaire.

Pfizer, which took over Wyeth in 2009, has operations in Cork, Dublin, Kildare, Limerick and Sligo, and is one of Ireland’s largest employers.

Its medical sales representatives work throughout the country.

Lipitor, which was launched in 1997, generated annual sales of $13 billion at its peak.