Less than a year after announcing major plans to expand its Humacao operations, contract manufacturing firm Legacy Pharmaceuticals is shutting down today. The closing leaves about 150 jobless, News is my Business confirmed.
The company has reportedly lost several contracts in the last year and was also struggling with high operating costs, including a monthly $400,000 electricity bill, a source close to the operation told this media outlet.
Multiple attempts to reach local company officials have been unsuccessful today.
However, officials notified both the Humacao municipal government and the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company of their decision to leave the island.
The closing comes as a surprise to the municipality as well as the central government, which less than two years ago, in June 2011, participated in a major announcement Legacy made regarding its plans to invest $34 million to expand the sprawling complex through 2016.
At the time, the company had about 115 people on its payroll and had been approved to receive more than $1.5 million in Pridco incentives to retain and create jobs. They had vowed to push the payroll up to 300 jobs.
While it remains unclear how many jobs they actually created, a source at Pridco told this media outlet the company had claimed $700,000 in incentive funding.
Legacy established itself in Puerto Rico and Switzerland through the 2007 acquisition of the former Valeant Pharmaceutical International facilities in both jurisdictions. In Humacao, it produced and packaged a variety of over-the-counter and prescription drugs in tablet and liquid forms.
It had an annual production capacity of 12 billion tablets and capsules, 100 million bottles and 12 million tubes at its 400,000 square-foot campus, located on a 220-acre campus in Humacao’s Mariana Sector.
Property to be auctioned
Los Angeles-based New Mill Capital LLC has been hired to auction the privately owned buildings as well as the manufacturing equipment during the first week of May.
During the two-day webcast auction slated to take place May 9-10, potential buyers have their choice of items including packaging lines, processing and packaging support equipment, facilities and maintenance, according to the listing.
A walk-through of the property is scheduled for several days ahead of the auction.
*Original post can be found at News is My Business