DUBLIN: Pfizer has cancelled a planned €400 million expansion of its Grange Castle plant in Dublin, depriving the city of 1,250 construction jobs and permanent employment for 350 people.
The company, one of Ireland’s largest private sector employers, sought planning permission earlier this year for a major extension to the plant.
However, the plans have been undermined by the failure earlier this month of a high-profile late-stage pipeline drug to lower cholesterol.
Pfizer said it had discovered unexpected side effects with the drug, an injection called bococizumab, and that it was becoming less effective over time. It also noted two rival drugs had been struggling to meet sales targets. As a result, it decided to discontinue development of the drug.
Pfizer had expected bococizumab to deliver sales of almost $1 billion a year. Instead, it has been left with a major hole in its late-stage pipeline and nothing to show for tens of millions of dollars spent in its development.
The company had close to 30,000 people enrolled in late-stage trials of the drug at the time it announced its intention to give up on its development.
