Pfizer to end Terre Haute operations mid-2009

TERRE HAUTE - Pfizer Inc. will shut down its Terre Haute plant by mid 2009 and put its manufacturing site up for sale.

"We don't have any other products to put here," Pfizer spokesman Rick Chambers said today.

"We will look at whether or not there are parties out there interested in buying it. We will be exploring that," Chambers said.

The closure will complete a total loss of 800 jobs at Pfizer since 2007.

The company will work with state and local officials to find an alternative company for the site, Chambers said.

The plant currently employs 140 people and manufactures antibiotics Unasyn and Pfizerpen. "We will be spending the next almost a year building up inventory to manage what very small demand there is in the U.S. for these particular products," Chambers said.

"That will take us probably in through the first quarter of 2009 and then we will be ramping down the operation during the second quarter," Chambers said. "In the meantime, there is no reason at all why we can't start aggressively looking at other options for the site and that is exactly what we will be doing."

"Because of generic competition, demand for the antibiotics we make in Terre Haute has been declining for many years," Nat Ricciardi, president of Pfizer Global Manufacturing said in a company release.

"After careful review, we made the decision to cease operating in Terre Haute. This decision is not a reflection on our highly skilled colleagues nor on the community of Terre Haute. It's simply a business reality that we must address," Ricciardi added.

Frank Foley, Pfizer Terre Haute site leader, said the plant's workers will have access to internal job postings, job search tools, career and retirement counseling, and severance benefits for those who leave the company.

"We deeply appreciate our colleagues, and we're committed to assisting them as much as possible through this transition," Foley said.

Pfizer in October 2007 announced it had pulled the plug on production of Exubera, an inhaled insulin, resulting in the loss of 660 jobs. Pfizer began permanently cutting those jobs in March.