Q COSTA RICA – Hospira, the larqest producer of generic injectable pharmaceuticals in the world, confirmed that it will gradually close its manufacturing plant in the Dominican Republic and that it will move most of these operations to its plant in Costa Rica, located in Global Park, in Barreal of Heredia.
La Nacion says the company confirmed to it the move, in a response to a questionnaire, but it did not provide the reason for the transfer, nor did it give figures of the number of new jobs it will create in Costa Rica.
La Nacion (Nacion.com) reports …”Today we report that after careful analysis of product volume and global manufacturing capabilities, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue manufacturing operations in the Dominican Republic and transfer most of the operations to the plant in Costa Rica.”
The closing down of the Dominican Republic plant and transfer of operations to Costa Rica is expected to be complete in the fourth quarter of 2017. “There will be a number of employees continuing through the next few months as the plant gradually transfers product lines and related systems,” said the company.
Rumors of the Hospira move away from the Dominican Republic and its move to Costa Rica began last month, but it wasn’t until March 30 that the Asociación Dominicana de Zonas Francas (Adozona) confirmed the leaving of Hospira, according to a publication in the Diario Libre.
Hospira has been present in Costa Rica since 1999, when it was part of Abbott Laboratories. In 2004, the company assumed the Hospira name as it became independent of Abbot.
In January 2007, Hospira moved some of its Ireland operations to Costa Rica, in order to save costs and take advantage of the productive capacity of its Global Park industrial park plant.
On September 2015, Hospira was acquired by Pfizer, who also has a presence in the country.
In October 2016, Pfizer inaugurated its new facilities for the Global Finance Shared Services Center, as part of the company’s growing process. The Finance Services Center, is located in Avenida Escazu, currently employs about 200 people to support the Latina American, United States, Canadian and European markets.