Allergan sheds 325 CL solution workers

Allergan is to lay off hundreds of contact lens care product workers in Ireland as work is transferred to America. The Californian pharmaceutical giant Ð as famous today for making Botox as it is for its more traditional products Ð announced this week that 325 staff will go between next March and June at its Westport plant. It is to end the production of contact lens solutions at the facility in County Mayo on the west coast of the Republic. This week Allergan announced its third quarter results, in which net sales of eye care and pharmaceutical products improved from $252.8m (quarter to September 26 2003) to $285.4m (quarter to September 24 2004). The job losses in Ireland represent a third of the Westport plant's total workforce of 955, 100 of whom produce Botox. Allergan's managing director in Ireland told reporters that the CL solutions business was being transferred to Advanced Medical Optics (AMO), in Santa Ana, California. AMO is the spin-off company from Allergan that became independent two years ago. It now employs 2,800 in 20 countries and it expects to absorb Allergan's transferred production at its Spanish and Chinese plants. For the third quarter of 2004, AMO's eye care business rose 10.2 per cent to $85m, compared to $77m previously.