Pfizer announced layoffs at its Rocky Mount and Sanford facilities in North Carolina, but the number of affected workers remains unclear, ABC11 WTVD reported on October 21. The Raleigh-Durham station said the announcement has left workers and local leaders seeking answers about the scale of the cuts.

Source: ABC11 WTVD

BioSpace, in its October 21 layoff tracker entry, reported that Pfizer is parting with an unspecified number of employees across its manufacturing operations, a spokesperson confirmed to BioSpace by email on Tuesday. The company representative declined to disclose how many employees and which sites were affected, BioSpace said, and Pfizer also did not say when the layoffs will take effect.

Source: BioSpace

“Pfizer regularly evaluates our manufacturing network to ensure capacity is effectively utilized based on patient needs, projected product demand, and long-term business objectives,” the spokesperson told BioSpace. “We've conducted a series of these evaluations focused on operational efficiencies, and headcount reductions are a part of this initiative.”

BioSpace reported Pfizer is in the midst of a restructuring programme and added $2.5 billion — yaani two and a half billion dollars — to its savings target in August. Many of the expected cuts are expected to stem from technology and simplification efforts across the company's manufacturing, research and development and commercial operations, BioSpace said, though a spokesperson at the time declined to confirm whether jobs would be affected.

For North Carolina, the open questions are the ones ABC11 put at the centre of its report: how many workers at Rocky Mount and Sanford will lose their jobs, and when. Neither ABC11 nor BioSpace reported a figure from the company on October 21, and Awaaz Punjab is not putting a number on the cuts until Pfizer or a state filing provides one.