Job losses not expected at Irish plants after Pfizer’s takeover of Pharmacia

PFIZER INC, the world’s largest drugmaker’s €53.7bn takeover of Pharmacia Corp is not expected to result in any jobs losses at the enlarged company’s Irish production plants employing close to 1,500 people.

The enlarged entity will operate as Pfizer and will employ almost 2,000 people in Ireland, mostly in production with 500 sales and support staff. Industry sources say that if there are jobs losses they will be a handful at most.

Pfizer manufactures impotence drug Viagra and cholesterol drug Lipitor in Cork while Pharmacia manufactures a number of pharmaceutical products in Cork, including Nicorette which aims to help people give up smoking.

The US Federal Trade Commission has given approval for the deal which will be completed in the coming weeks. The completion of the deal will permit the closure sale of the HRT drug Femhrt to Northern Irish company Galen.

The Pharmacia acquisition will give Pfizer all the revenue for Celebrex and Bextra, top-selling pain- killers that are now jointly marketed by the two companies. Pfizer has said it expects the combined company to post 10% annual revenue growth in the next three years and generate savings of $2.5bn by 2005.

National City Private Investment Advisors analyst John Farrall said:

“Pharmaceuticals is not a game for a mid-sized players any more,” said Mr Farrall whose company owns about eight million Pfizer shares and four million Pharmacia shares.

The approval also clears the way for Pharmacia CEO Fred Hassan to become CEO at rival Schering-Plough Corp, when Richard Jay Kogan steps down this month, investors said. Hassan’s contract, which prevents him from going to a competitor, expires when the Pfizer takeover is completed.

Pfizer and Pharmacia last month agreed to sell some products to win US antitrust approval, and in February reached a similar accord to obtain European Commission clearance of their merger.

The FTC said Pfizer’s $4.2bn sale of its Adams candy unit, which makes Trident and Dentyne gums, to Cadbury Schweppes Plc eliminates concerns the combined company might raise the price of cough drops.

Adams makes Halls cough drops, and Pharmacia makes the Ludens brand.

The companies also agreed to divest drugs for dogs and cows to address concerns the combination would reduce competition for these products.

“We remain very bullish on the outlook for the combined company. Our buy on Pfizer remains,” said Dolmen securities analyst, Ronan Wallace.