SIDE EFFECTS
Restructuring, Spinoffs, Other Moves Led to Less Workers at Drug Makers
By VITA REED
Restructuring, a spinoff and a takeback led Orange County’s largest drug makers to lose jobs during the past year.
The Business Journal’s list of drug makers based in OC or with operations here is ranked by local employment. It includes 10 companies with 3,791 workers, down 9% from a year ago. This year’s group has 12% fewer workers than last year’s crop.
Three OC-based drug makers dominate this list: No. 1 Allergan Inc., No. 2 Sicor Inc.,both of Irvine,and No. 3 ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Costa Mesa. The trio accounts for more than 80% of OC’s drug workforce.
Allergan, a maker of eye and skin products, is the dominant drug maker in OC, accounting for more than half of the jobs on the list.
Still, Allergan saw its OC workforce fall by 14% to 1,900 workers as a result of its spinoff of Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc., a maker of contact lens care and eye surgical products (see story above).
Sicor, which develops and makes generic injectable drugs and pharmaceutical compounds used to make other drugs, retained the No. 2 spot from prior years with a 10% job gain to 729 OC workers.
“We keep growing,” said Laurie Little, a Sicor spokeswoman.
Sicor has been hiring more salespeople, Little said. In the past, manufacturing drove employment growth, she said.
ICN, which has undergone a dramatic makeover in the past year, saw an 18% drop to 506 local workers. The company has been shedding businesses and cutting operations after last year’s ouster of founder and former chief executive Milan Panic.
The drop comes even after ICN brought Ribapharm Inc. back into the fold. Ribapharm debuted at No. 6 on last year’s list after ICN spun off 20% of the biotechnology unit. This year’s ICN numbers include Ribapharm after ICN’s recent buyback of the shares it didn’t already own.
The list also includes sales and marketing offices of big global drug makers.
No. 4 Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co. counts 400 workers at its Western area sales operation in Anaheim.
No. 5 Pfizer Inc. of New York, which took more space at Irvine Center Towers near John Wayne Airport earlier this year, counts 100 local workers.
And No. 7 Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., also based in New York, has an estimated 40 workers in Aliso Viejo.
Other companies on the list: No. 6 Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Tustin, which jumped 11% to 52 local workers; No. 8 Stason Pharmaceuticals Inc., up 67% to 25 workers; and No. 9 Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc., down 21% to 23 workers. Stason and Cortex are based in Irvine.
Besides Ribapharm, last year’s No. 9 company, Celltech Manufacturing CA Inc., dropped off this year’s list. Celltech, part of Britian’s Celltech Group PLC, closed its Santa Ana plant in August. The drug maker employed about 30 people in OC, making drug ingredients and finished products.
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