Mylan ($MYL) expanded a plant in Vermont several years ago, bumping up the employment by 160 jobs as a result. But times have changed and the drugmaker says it will now make a 10% cut in an effort to streamline operations.
The company in an emailed statement said the 10% reduction works out to about 60 jobs to be eliminated at the Mylan Technologies plant in St. Albans, which makes transdermal patches. The generics maker said it is hopeful that most of the cuts can be achieved with a voluntary reduction program and that all of those leaving will get generous severance packages and those volunteering to leave will receive additional compensation.
"The decision comes after a careful assessment of a number of factors impacting the site and is consistent with our ongoing efforts to operate our businesses as efficiently as possible," Nina Devlin, Mylan’s head of global communications, said in a statement. "MTI’s production of transdermal drug-delivery systems--patches that deliver medication through the skin--and related technologies will continue to be a critical part of Mylan’s global product portfolio and manufacturing network, and we remain committed to this site and the community.”
Mylan got into the transdermal patch business more than 20 years ago when it bought the facility in St. Albans from Bertek Labeling for $39 million. Transdermal patches are a specialty that not many companies do, although India’s Rusan Pharma last month opened a $15 million transdermal patch facility.
Mylan in 2013 completed an 85,000-square-foot, three-story expansion project at the plant that bumped up the total operating space at the Mylan Technologies facility to 391,000 square feet. Mylan at the time said it was adding 160 new jobs to the 590 already at the facility.
The announcement comes as the Canonsburg, PA-based generics maker is on another expansion binge, in which it will be taking on thousands of new employees. It has a $7.2 billion deal for Sweden’s Meda, which comes with about 4,500 employees. Two weeks ago, it said it would spend about $1 billion to get pick up topical skin meds from Renaissance Acquisition Holdings. In that deal it is getting two plants and a contract manufacturing business, as well as 1,200 employees in manufacturing and sales and administration.
- here’s the WCAX story
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