Pharmaceutical giant Novartis has been urged to take greater responsibility for a community that has served it so well for 70 years, as it edges closure to a self-set departure date.
The devastating decision to close the huge Grimsby processing facility – where many active ingredients for life-enhancing drugs are made – came last September, and bosses in Switzerland, London and Grimsby have remained tight-lipped since.
A total of 395 direct employees are affected, with at least a further 100 dedicated site contractors also at risk.
Now town MP Melanie Onn has secured a minister to join a task force – as seen down the A180 at British Steel - as the first 10 months since the hammer blow passes with little visible action.
Labour’s Ms Onn and her Cleethorpes counterpart from across the Commons, Martin Vickers, have met recently with the company.
She said: “Martin and I had a meeting to talk about what they have been doing, and to keep the pressure on and make sure we don’t end up with a huge empty site for years and years. We encouraged them to take responsibility for a community they have had so much from for 70 years.
“Novartis has only just started to properly market the site, and the team there are trying to be as positive as they can in the circumstances. I recognise it is difficult and the extremely tough decision has been made that they are not going to produce anything there anymore. It is just about what next and trying to do our best for the people who work there.”
It came as she called on Business Secretary Greg Clark to provide support and guidance, with a member of the Business Energy and Industrial Strategy team to be appointed.
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“I asked a question in parliament, of Greg Clark, and he agreed to put forward a minister on a task force. It sounds promising, and is important to have government interest in trying to support the future of that site in Grimsby.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me having the Town Deal on one hand, and losing 400 good jobs. We have some great wins, positive successes, and while looking one way something disappears behind you. We are trying to build and make Grimsby grow for the future, but there is a realisation of treading water sometimes. It sums up how I feel.”
Late last summer Novartis said the decision was part of a “global transformation of the company’s manufacturing network”. It has set a two year timeframe, which hasn’t deviated from the December 2020 date it set when the bombshell came.
A company spokesperson said “all options are still open” for the 226-acre facility on the South Humber Bank.
The decision followed the announcement of the start of a 2,000 phased job cull and relocation in Switzerland, a continuation of the manufacturing strategy initiated in 2016.
Ms Onn, together with Mr Vickers, met Mr Clark within a month of the announcement, with the site described as "very effective".
It said it was working to “adapt its manufacturing network further in response to its changing product portfolio; with fewer high volume products, which the Grimsby site has focused on producing,”. Instead it will have an increased emphasis on specialised and personalised innovative medicines.
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It has been a staple of the industrial make-up of the estuary since the post-war era.
The first batch of medicine was produced by Ciba Laboratories in 1951, an anti-bacterial product Cibazol. A first merger saw the nameplate change to Ciba-Geigy in 1971, before a rebrand saw it revert to Ciba in 1993.
Novartis, Latin for ‘new skills’, came to the fore when rival Basel-based giants Ciba and Sandoz merged in 1996.
A decade later a £179 million investment was made with the site-dominating Building 150, to produce the active ingredients in Diovan, a high blood pressure treatment. A further £118 million of capital followed soon after, as Rasilez emerged – a drug to control hypertension.
In 2010 it was crowned as the global leader in the 23-site portfolio. In the past three years it has manufactured drugs for oncology, and the first batches of a new treatment for heart failure.