Hospira to close Rocky Mount plant wing

Hospira plans to shut down a wing of its Rocky Mount plant that packages drug bottles in July 2010.

The impact on employees is unknown at this time, a spokesperson for the company said.

“We do not yet know the workforce impact and it would be inappropriate to speculate at this time,” said Rick Isaza, vice president of operations for the Rocky Mount plant.

The pharmaceutical company is moving most of its “small volume parenteral finishing operations,” a wing of the plant where vials are packaged, to an undisclosed location out of the area, Isaza said.

Isaza said Hospira made the decision to transfer the operations “after an initial analysis of global manufacturing operations, and as part of Hospira’s companywide focus on improving productivity and increasing efficiency.”

He said he could not disclose how many people work in that section of the plant. The overall plant employs more than 2,000.

Isaza also said it is premature to say whether any Hospira employees will be laid off as a result of the transfer of this operation. He said temporary employees would be the first to go.

“We are still in the process of determining the processes that will remain,” he said. “We will be reassigning the affected employees to new positions within the facility, whenever possible.”

John Gessaman, the chief executive officer of the public-private industrial recruitment agency Carolinas Gateway Partnership, said he is pleased that Hospira is staying.

“We’re pleased when our current manufacturers make commitments to stay in the area,” he said. “It’s a rapidly changing field. Our region and our area have been shown to be a very cost-effective place for pharmaceutical, biotech and life science jobs.”

He said it was difficult to comment more about the closing of the wing without knowing more details.

“Hospira is a very valuable member of our community,” Gessaman said. “It has been here for a long time and is our largest private sector employer. We are eager to do whatever we can do to work with Hospira in the future to fully utilize the capacity of our area.”

According to its Web page, Hospira is a global specialty pharmaceutical and medication delivery company.

Hospira Inc. said Tuesday that its profit jumped 42 percent in the third quarter due to rising sales of specialty drugs, primarily a generic chemotherapy treatment.

Hospira said sales of specialty drugs — or drugs that require special handling — climbed 24 percent to $575.7 million. That was partly due to sales of a generic version of the chemotherapy drug oxaliplatin, which was launched during the quarter.

Oxaliplatin is a generic version of Sanofi-Aventis’ drug Eloxatin.

Hospira said sales of non-specialty drugs fell 10 percent to $157.4 million. Medication management delivery system revenue was unchanged at $162.6 million, and other device revenue fell 8 percent to $111.8 million.

The company raised its annual profit forecasts to a range of $2.85 to $2.90 per share from $2.80 to $2.85 per share, excluding one-time costs. Analysts expect an average of $2.84 per share.

Associated Press contributed to this report