Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc., the California-based drug maker, will close its Carmel manufacturing facility by the end of 2010, the company said.
According to a company spokesperson, this will be followed by the shuttering of its Brewster and Danbury facilities, though the timeframe for those closures was not revealed as of press time.
Last year, the company saved more than $30 million by closing and selling its Puerto Rico and Phoenix manufacturing facilities. The products that were manufactured there are now being made in the company”™s Goa, India, facility, which recently received federal clearance to manufacture products for the U.S. market. The facility”™s first product was recently shipped to the U.S.
“We continue to make strides on our strategic initiatives aimed at improving our overall cost structure and enhancing operating efficiencies,” said Paul Bisaro, president and CEO of Watson in the company”™s “2008 Outlook.” “These efforts to improve operating efficiencies will continue in 2008 and beyond, and include the decision to close our Carmel manufacturing facilities by the end of 2010.”
In the fall of last year, Watson had just under 600 employees in its Carmel facility, nearly a hundred workers at its Brewster facility, and about 60 workers at its Danbury facility.
“The Economic Development Committee is going to have to find a new tenant immediately,” said Putnam County Legislator Robert McGuigan, chairman of the Economic Development Committee.
According to the company, it expects to acquire pretax costs associated with the planned closure of the Carmel facility of approximately $34 million. The company also anticipates incurring $8 million of licensing and debt repurchase charges.
American pharmaceutical business trends are tilting toward rising manufacturing costs, according to industry sources.
