SALISBURY, MD - Pharmaceutical company Jubilant Cadista’s parent company Jubilant Pharmova has announced the upcoming closure of manufacturing operations at their Salisbury facility.
In a release obtained by WBOC Wednesday, April 17th, Jubilant Pharmova says the expected date of the manufacturing operation's closure and “first separations” are expected on June 17th, 2024. Sales and marketing for the US market will continue at Jubilant Cadista, according to their parent company.
Jubilant Pharmova says the US Generics market has witnessed significant pricing pressure in the last few years leading to significant losses at Jubilant Cadista since fiscal year 2022.
“In order to move the US generics business to profitability, it has been decided to change the operating model from in-house manufacturing to outsourced manufacturing by selected USFDA approved CMOs for the US market,” Jubilant Pharmova said in Wednesday’s statement.
Jubilant Cadista is expected to explore various options to utilize or sell the Salisbury facility’s land, building and plant and plant machinery, according to Jubilant Pharmova.
In November of 2022, Jubilant Cadista announced it was cutting 80 jobs, nearly 25% of its workforce. It is currently unclear exactly how many jobs will be lost with the closure in June.
Jubilant Cadista began with 30 employees in 2005 and expanded to 300 in 2013, according to a previous press release.
Employee's at Jubilant Cadista and the city of Salisbury say this did not come as a shock.
Pam Abbott, a quality control chemist, says, "So everyone was kind of gossiping before hand so there was a fair amount of forewarning that this was going to happen."
Dave Ryan, Executive Director with Salisbury-Wicomico Economic Development says, "It was not a surprise. They had a layoff a year and a half ago; a forced reduction. They've had significant management changes in the past year or two even three or four."
However Abbott says its still shocking to lose your job.
"I guess just the stress of trying to find a new job. I know a lot of people have children, they have houses here, so do they sell their house and pick up their family and move somewhere else?"
Ryan says those families are the priority right now.
"You know when I first heard that the thing I thought about was the one person that has that job and the impact on that person. I mean as a community we will recover. We want to help people transition to new job and we want to fill that plant, and we have prospects to do that."
Abbott says Jubilant Cadista isn't abandoning them either.
"They're supplying emotional support for us. They have resume help, if you want help knowing how to interview. They're helping us with all of that and they're giving us a severance package."
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available. A copy of Jubilant Pharmova's press release has been included with this article.
