Nearly 300 Layoffs Expected By Pfizer In Rockland County

PEARL RIVER, NY — Pfizer is continuing to downsize, filing a notice in December with the New York Department of Labor about laying off 285 employees at its research facility in Rockland County.

The company announced at the beginning of the fourth quarter that as many as 791 employees could be laid off on Feb. 12 from its corporate office in New Jersey if those employees do not choose to relocate to another Pfizer location, primarily the new global headquarters at The Spiral, an office tower at Hudson Yards, where Pfizer signed a 20-year lease in 2018. SEE: Nearly 800 Could Be Laid Off In NJ By Pfizer

The reason cited in the December New York WARN notice was "economic."

In October, Pfizer cut 2023 revenue projections by $9 billion and announced it was launching an "enterprise-wide cost realignment program," fiercepharma.com reported.

"Clearly, there is a higher level of uncertainty regarding the demand projections for our COVID-19 products than for the rest of our business," Albert Bourla, Pfizer's chairman and chief executive officer, said on a conference call in August.

The facility on North Middletown Road in Pearl River is one of Pfizer's nine major R&D sites, developing and manufacturing vaccines for more than a century. The total number of employees at the site is 1,012, company officials said in the WARN notice. Pfizer announced plans in 2022 to expand and modernize the facility. SEE: Pfizer To Expand Pearl River Campus

The layoffs in Pearl River are expected to start Feb. 12 and conclude by March 25.