Pharmedium to lay off 225 at Memphis facility

Pharmedium will lay off 225 workers at its suspended Memphis outsourcing facility, its parent company said Tuesday.

The facility at 6100 Global Drive is “undergoing a workforce reorganization” that will cost 225 employees their jobs, according to a statement from parent company Amerisourcebergen.

The layoffs at Pharmedium are effective March 12, according to a WARN notice posted Monday with the state of Tennessee. WARN notices are generally required whenever a company has a mass layoff.

The WARN notice said all 440 employees at the facility would be affected by the layoff, but the company said Tuesday it is keeping 215 positions.

Amerisourcebergen said those losing their jobs will be offered severance benefits and career support ser-

vices.

Memphis production suspended after FDA inspections

Pharmedium is a drug compounding company based in Illinois. Its Memphis facility is the largest among Pharmedium’s four outsourcing locations.

Amerisourcebergen voluntarily suspended production at the facility in December 2017 following FDA inspections, it disclosed in an SEC filing.

Also that December, Pharmedium issued a voluntary recall of drug products compounded at its Memphis facility “due to a lack of assurance of sterility.” A month earlier, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee issued Pharmedium a grand jury subpoena for information about its lab testing procedures and “products packaged in a certain type of syringe” in Memphis, per an SEC filing.

The company said in its most recent annual report it remained in communication with regulators “regarding the ongoing compliance efforts of Pharmedium, including efforts to resume commercial distribution at the Memphis facility.”

Max Garland covers Fedex, logistics and health care for The Commercial Appeal. Reach him at max.garland@commercialappeal.com or 901-529-2651 and on Twitter @Maxgarlandtypes.