Teva Layoffs To Affect 47 Employees In West Chester

WEST CHESTER, PA — Teva Pharmaceuticals recently announced restructuring will lay off 14,000 employees worldwide, including 47 in West Chester.

The details were released in a notice from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

The company's North American headquarters are in North Wales, and it also has operations in West Chester, Horsham, and Frazer. In total, 208 employees in Pennsylvania have been laid off, according to the state.

Teva announced plans to undergo a massive overhaul of the company in December, including a 25 percent workforce reduction and the loss of some 14,000 jobs.

Teva officials say that the restructuring plan will "simplify and unify" business operations and save the company $3 billion by the end of 2019. The 14,000 cuts will take place over the next two years, with most of them occurring in 2018, according to the announcement.

"Today we are launching a comprehensive restructuring plan, crucial to restoring our financial security and stabilizing our business," Kåre Schultz, Teva's President and CEO, said in a statement. "We are taking immediate and decisive actions to reduce our cost base across our global business and become a more efficient and profitable company."

News of cuts at Teva are nothing new.

In 2015, union members marched to protest recent layoffs in North Wales. And a previous round of about 7,000 job cuts at Teva worldwide were announced as recently as August 2017.

The restructuring will specifically take aim at manufacturing plants. The announcement said the company planned on closing a "significant number" of plants throughout the United States, Europe, Israel, and elsewhere.

For employees who did not lose their jobs, the company is suspending dividends on ordinary shares, and the company's annual 2017 bonus will not be paid out, company officials said.

AP Photo/Mark Lennihan