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It’s a blow to the 250 employees of Legacy Pharmaceuticals based in Birsfelden BL. In the morning they were informed of the closure of the traditional pharmaceutical company via video call, according to several employees to BLICK. On December 1 they lose their Büez. “It’s very sad. And that’s in the midst of the Crown crisis. We are all desperate,” says a longtime employee.
Since 1947 the company has been producing sterile pharmaceuticals in liquid and powder form, for example for wound healing. But then they got into more and more trouble. In October, Swissmedic withdrew the company’s operating license. “As part of an inspection, Swissmedic discovered deficiencies in production. The company in question had to stop the production of sterile drugs until the appropriate corrective measures were taken, ”the authority writes.
Swissmedic withdraws an operating license
And: “There may be temporary interruptions in the delivery of certain affected drugs, which are mainly used in hospitals.” The deficiencies must have been serious. Because Swissmedic even verified the recall of individual product batches.
Until a follow-up inspection confirms that the quality, maintenance and qualification of the systems in question comply with the regulations of the applicable standards, various sterile products may temporarily stop being manufactured or sold, it continues.
“Not immune to Covid”
“Legacy and its business partners are not immune to Covid either.” With these words, CEO Mike Danzi addressed employees in an internal letter available to VIEW on November 10. “Registration processes in Russia have been delayed and incoming orders have dropped.”
The deficiencies identified by Swissmedic must be remedied. “Our current plan is to close the plants for a longer period of time.” And: “To react to the critical cash situation, we have to cut our expenses as drastically as possible,” writes Danzi. That has already been done with bankruptcy.
Legacy Pharmaceuticals did not respond to any questions from VIEW.
