Irish jobs set to go as Pfizer gets ready to implement over €3bn cuts worldwide

JOBS at Pfizer’s Irish operations are under threat as the company prepares to implement €3.3 billion in cuts worldwide as sales of Covid boosters slump.

The company dramatically lowered sales forecasts for both its Covid vaccine and its antiviral Paxlovid in recent days.

Vaccine sales are now expected to be 15 per cent weaker than previously projected, while the company has marked expected antiviral sales down to just €0.95bn, from €7.58bn, in large part due to stock being returned by the US government.

The group’s Irish plants are heavily involved in the production of both products.

Pfizer employs approximately 5,000 people across five locations in Ireland.

Pfizer ramped up its Irish operations during the pandemic with the group’s Grange Castle complex becoming part of its Covid global manufacturing network following a €38m investment at the site.

Its plants at Ringaskiddy, Cork, and Newbridge, are key production locations in the manufacture of Paxlovid.

The group said the shortfall in expectations for its Covid franchise of products was to blame for all of a €8.5bn – or 13 per cent – downgrade in predicted groupwide revenues for 2023.

Pfizer warned back in August that it would launch a cost-cutting programme if Covid sales continued to underperform in its third quarter and that is what has happened.

It said that the cost-cutting programme will include lay-offs, without providing details on how many jobs will be cut or from what areas.

However, given the dramatic slide in demand for Covid products those operations seem most at risk.

Pfizer earned record revenue in 2021 and 2022, close to €95bn last year, after developing its vaccine Comirnaty with German partner BioNTech and antiviral treatment Paxlovid on its own.

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