TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — Drug maker Pfizer Inc. will lay off 660 workers at its Vigo County plant by midyear and possibly cut the remaining 140 positions later, dealing a setback to the state's life sciences jobs initiative.
Monday's announcement came as little surprise after the New York-based company placed 600 workers on paid leave in October when it decided to stop selling the plant's top product, the inhaled insulin Exubera, because of disappointing sales.
Those idled workers and others — 660 in all — will formally lose their jobs over three months beginning in March, leaving just 140 employees to make two other products, the low-selling antibiotics Unasyn and Cefobid.
''Due to declining demand for those products, the company is looking into the ongoing prospects of that business,'' the company said in a news release. ''Pfizer is still evaluating long-term options for the site.''
The announcement of the layoffs marked a stunning turnaround from March 2006, when Gov. Mitch Daniels hailed Pfizer's decision to hire 450 more workers in Vigo County to produce Exubera as proof of Indiana's progress in ''becoming a premier destination for companies in the life sciences sector.''
Daniels wasn't available for comment Monday on the Pfizer announcement, leaving it to his press secretary, Jane Jankowski, to provide reaction.
''I know Pfizer had great hopes for the product, so it certainly is disappointing news,'' she said.
Jankowski dismissed the notion the Pfizer cuts were a setback for the state's life sciences jobs initiative. She noted several other large job commitments in life sciences: Medco Health Solutions Inc.'s decision to build a 1,300-job automated pharmacy, Arcadia HealthCare's decision to create 400 jobs by 2010, and WellPoint Inc.'s creation of 1,200 pharmacy jobs by 2011, all in the Indianapolis area.
''We have a lot of real good, positive momentum,'' Jankowski said.
Pfizer had invested more than $300 million in the plant just south of Terre Haute since 1999 as it ramped up production of Exubera. However, the drug never met expectations and Pfizer pulled the plug on it last October just months after expanding its sales effort beyond specialists to primary care doctors.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered Pfizer nearly $9 million in tax credits and training grants two years ago for the expansion, but the company never followed through with the necessary paperwork, said the agency's director, Nate Feltman.
''The state is not out anything,'' Feltman said.
Rod Henry, president of the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce, said Pfizer has been among the largest employers in Vigo County and one of its leading corporate citizens for the past 60 years. The Terre Haute area will be hard pressed to find 600 more jobs of equal quality, he said.
''We'll bounce back. What we've got to see what we can do as a community is basically to make sure to stop the loss of Pfizer,'' Henry said.
Workers learned of their impending layoffs in meetings Monday morning. Frank Foley, the plant's senior manager, said Pfizer will provide transfer opportunities, severance pay, career and retirement counseling and other aid for the displaced workers.
''We're committed to providing whatever assistance our colleagues need,'' Foley said.
Feltman said the state would continue talking to Pfizer about possible new uses for the upgraded plant.
