PORTAGE, Mich. (AP) — Pfizer Inc. says it expects to eliminate about 200 manufacturing positions in Portage and Kalamazoo during the next year.
The New York-based drug maker has about 3,000 factory workers in the area; the cuts would represent about 6.6 percent of those jobs.
Job cuts are needed because of ongoing changes in demand for Pfizer's products, company spokesman Rick Chambers told the Kalamazoo Gazette for a story published Friday.
Chambers also said the number of workers will be increased for some product lines and decreased for others. Some cuts will be achieved through job attrition.
''We expect the net effect will be, over the next year, fewer manufacturing positions overall,'' he said. ''We think it will be around 200 fewer positions.''
The elimination of 60 positions in Portage will stem from Pfizer's announcement last week that it was halting production of its inhaled insulin product, Exubera.
In January, Pfizer said it would eliminate about 250 drug-safety positions in downtown Kalamazoo next year as part of a larger restructuring effort.
The company announced in June that it was consolidating parts of its veterinary medicine research and development operation, resulting in 65 positions being transferred from Sandwich, England, to downtown Kalamazoo, most likely in 2008.
