GSK closing Costa Rica consumer products plant, cutting 62 jobs

GlaxoSmithKline is giving up on manufacturing in Costa Rica and will wind down operations at its consumer health products plant in San Jose over the next three years. The move will cost more than 60 people their jobs.

The U.K. drugmaker last week announced that it intends to close the plant in San Jose by the end of 2019 after moving production to other facilities in Latin America, according to a translated story in El Financiero. 

According to a GSK spokesperson, the site which has been producing products for more than 60 years has about 150 employees, but only 62 are expected to lose their jobs. GSK will move manufacturing and packaging of the soluble effervescent antacid brands Eno and Andrews and the acetaminophen pain drug Panadol to other “appropriate” sites. 

A release forwarded by GSK said the move will not affect the availability of the company’s products in the country in any way.

GSK said the decision will not affect its Pharmaceutical and Consumer Healthcare divisions or its Business Services Center in the country, which employ about 500 people. The Business Services Center is actually expected to add jobs in coming months.

While losing production jobs, Costa Rica will also be the beneficiary of some administrative jobs from AstraZeneca. In December, the U.K.-based company said it would downsize a finance division in Alderley Park, England, and move an undisclosed number of positions to centralized facilities in Malaysia, Poland and Costa Rica.