Pfizer-Allergan combo would comprise 100+ sites and post-Wyeth level headcount

By Dan Stanton

- Last updated on GMT

Combined Pfizer-Allergan would boast 100 plus manufacturing sites and over 120,000 employees
Combined Pfizer-Allergan would boast 100 plus manufacturing sites and over 120,000 employees

Related tags Pharma giant sanofi Pfizer

Pfizer’s manufacturing network would stretch beyond 100 sites if a merger deal with Allergan is reached.

It has been two weeks since Pfizer announced it was in “preliminary friendly discussions”​ with Allergan in regards to a potential megamerger​, and the latest development, according to Bloomberg​, is that the firms are looking to Allergan’s CEO Brent Saunders to head up the combined entity if a deal is made.

But such a merger would of course have greater repercussions than just the movement of management, and the formation of a Pharma firm valued at $330bn - more than the GDPs of Malaysia and Singapore​ – would also create the industry’s largest manufacturing network.

French Pharma Giant Sanofi described its network of 102 manufacturing facilities last week​ as “one of the largest plant networks in its peer group,”​ while Novartis had roughly 100 sites​ across all its divisions at the start of the year. Both firms are undergoing network restructures to reduce these numbers.

But a Pfizer-Allergan combination would encompass this, with Allergan adding over 40​ plants to Pfizer’s 55​ internal production sites, according to company figures.

On top of this, Pfizer’s acquisition of Hospira in September​ added 16 more manufacturing sites, minus the Clayton, North Carolina site shuttered in June​, therefore by our tally the new ‘Pharma Behemoth’ would have a network of 110 sites.

Beyond Wyeth

This would push levels far beyond the 78 sites​ Pfizer had following its last megamerger, the $68bn takeover of Wyeth in 2009.

Since then, the company has been reducing its network through a number of facility closures and has reduced its employee number from a total of nearly 130,000 post-merger to 78,300 at the end of last year​.

Around 19,000 Hospira employees have since been added to the headcount, but the addition of an estimated 30,000 more from Allergan will push total headcount close to the Pfizer-Wyeth number.

Of course, Teva’s proposed $40.5bn acquisition​ of Allergan’s generics division will reduce the headcount and plant number somewhat if it goes through, but would still leave Pfizer-Allergan with a huge manufacturing footprint.

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