Xellia to cut 247 jobs after selling Bedford plant to Hikma, impacting various roles and facilities.
Following the recent acquisition by generic
drugmaker Hikma of portions of Xellia’s U.S. assets, Xellia has announced plans
for a new round of layoffs. The Danish pharmaceutical company will cut 247
positions in connection with the sale of its Bedford plant near Cleveland,
Ohio, to Hikma. According to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification
(WARN) alert sent to the state, 214 of the affected employees are based at the
Bedford facility.
These layoffs, scheduled to begin in
August, will impact various roles within Xellia, including analytical chemists,
aseptic operators, automation engineers, IT technicians, and managerial
positions. This is the second round of layoffs for Xellia this year, following
a previous announcement in December 2023 that approximately 80 positions at the
Bedford plant would be phased out starting in February.
The decision to reduce staff comes shortly
after Hikma’s acquisition, where they agreed to pay $135 million in cash and
$50 million in contingencies for parts of Xellia’s U.S. assets, including the
manufacturing facility in Cleveland's suburbs. The Bedford plant, as noted by
Hikma, possesses comprehensive capabilities for developing, manufacturing,
packaging, and distributing freeze-dried vials and aseptically filled
ready-to-use IV bag products.
In addition to the Bedford plant, Hikma
will acquire Xellia’s portfolio of ready-to-use products such as Vanco Ready
(vancomycin), a treatment for bacterial infections. The acquisition also
includes an R&D facility and its staff present in Zagreb, Croatia.
