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.