(Photo Courtesy: www.gptuae.com)
During this time, it produced a number of medicines, for both domestic and international markets.
Practically there was no production activity at the plant since 2013. Hence the company announced its decision to shut it down by 2016.
The closure, according to Pfizer, will not impact the supply of any of its medicines, it told BioSpectrum in an email.
The facility employed 212 professionals and the company had offered a generous voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to the workmen last year upon their request, said Pfizer.
The VRS has been taken up by as many as 132 employees out of the 212 workmen.
"The remaining 80 workmen have continued to receive full wages, despite plant inactivity. As a part of the closure process, the company will honour its obligations towards requisite compensation, as mandated by law, for the remaining workmen," the company's spokeswoman said.
When asked if the facility would be given away to be converted in to an incubator, Pfizer commented, "We cannot speculate on future activities."
In another incident parallely, drug maker Sandoz too announced its plans to lockup its Turbhe site in Maharashtra.
Last year, in August 2014, Piramal officially vocalized its decision to shut its Mumbai R&D unit.
"I think the regulatory bottlenecks are slowing down research and innovation. I hope it will change with the new government," told Dr Swati Piramal, vice chairperson, Piramal Enterprises, in an interview to BioSpectrum last year.
Also, in January 2014, AstraZeneca announced the shutting down of its iconic Avishkar R&D site in Bangalore.
