Phar­ma com­pa­nies have been no stranger to la­bor dis­putes re­cent­ly and the lat­est one is hit­ting a Pfiz­er man­u­fac­tur­ing site in the land down un­der.

Ac­cord­ing to the Unit­ed Work­ers Union (UWU), em­ploy­ees at Pfiz­er’s phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal man­u­fac­tur­ing plant in the Perth sub­urb of Bent­ley have walked off for 24 hours in protest of what the union sees as a sub­stan­dard pay of­fer for work­ers.

Union mem­bers said Pfiz­er re­fused to con­sid­er a wage in­crease in line with the cost of liv­ing. Pfiz­er has re­port­ed­ly of­fered a 12% in­crease in wages over three years, while union mem­bers are pur­su­ing 18%.

UWU’s ac­tion comes as the plant in Bent­ley is about to shut­ter its doors.

Ac­cord­ing to a re­port from the Aus­tralian Broad­cast­ing Com­pa­ny in 2020, the Bent­ley man­u­fac­tur­ing site, which makes on­col­o­gy med­i­cines as well as in­jecta­bles for hos­pi­tals in Aus­tralia and New Zealand, an­nounced it would stop its op­er­a­tions in 2023, with the doors ful­ly clos­ing in 2024. Em­ploy­ees would be laid off over three years and em­ploy­ees in Perth will have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to ap­ply for any in­ter­nal va­can­cies as well as some roles that tran­si­tion through re­de­ploy­ment.

Ac­cord­ing to Pfiz­er, in a state­ment emailed to End­points News, the com­pa­ny eval­u­at­ed its glob­al man­u­fac­tur­ing net­work to en­sure that its pro­duc­tion ca­pac­i­ty is ef­fec­tive­ly uti­lized and as a re­sult, it de­cid­ed to cease man­u­fac­tur­ing at the Perth site.

The union said that the clo­sure would leave more than 100 ad­vanced man­u­fac­tur­ing work­ers in “lim­bo” as no buy­er has been se­cured. De­spite Pfiz­er leav­ing Bent­ley, the UWU al­so re­port­ed that Pfiz­er was re­fus­ing to guar­an­tee re­dun­dan­cies paid on av­er­age hours worked.

The union stat­ed that they may take in­def­i­nite ac­tion if Pfiz­er re­turns with what they see as an un­fair of­fer.

“Pfiz­er is cur­rent­ly in ne­go­ti­a­tion with the union for a new EBA for the com­pa­ny’s Perth man­u­fac­tur­ing em­ploy­ees. Pfiz­er is work­ing close­ly with the union to agree on a new EBA that works for all em­ploy­ees at the Perth site, which of­fers fair and rea­son­able terms for wages and al­lowances, and ad­dress­es the in­creased cost of liv­ing,” Pfiz­er told End­points.

Pfiz­er al­so de­tailed how over the last 10 years, it has de­liv­ered above-in­fla­tion pay in­creas­es of more than 40% in the agree­ment, com­pared with CPI of 26%.

“We have re­peat­ed­ly as­sured Perth col­leagues that our un­capped re­dun­dan­cy pro­vi­sions re­main in­tact through the EBA agree­ment. Pfiz­er’s re­dun­dan­cy pro­vi­sions are sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er than those pro­vid­ed un­der the Na­tion­al Em­ploy­ment Stan­dards (NES),” the state­ment said.

How­ev­er, Pfiz­er is not the on­ly phar­ma to be feel­ing the heat from la­bor as sev­er­al ma­jor com­pa­nies have been fac­ing the heat from work­ers.

GSK’s man­u­fac­tur­ing sites in the UK were look­ing at a strike in April af­ter the phar­ma of­fered what work­ers de­scribed as a “de­riso­ry” pay raise and vot­ed in fa­vor of strik­ing, how­ev­er, both sides man­aged to agree on a 4.5% raise.

In South Ko­rea, things have been hot­ter on the la­bor front. Sanofi in June faced a strike by work­ers over a 1.5% in­crease in pay, but work­ers ini­tial­ly de­mand­ed a 7% pay hike and then low­ered the de­mand to 4%.

And in Ju­ly, union­ized No­vo Nordisk work­ers gath­ered at the com­pa­ny’s head­quar­ters in Seoul to protest a failed end to wage ne­go­ti­a­tions and cuts to some em­ploy­ee in­cen­tives.

The FDA on Tuesday released a warning letter sent earlier this month to the Mason, OH-based site of Procter & Gamble Manufactura, raising questions about the list of ingredients on the label and in the electronic filing.

The warning says that for P&G’s over-the-counter Vicks Nyquil Severe Hot Remedy Cold and Flu Plus Congestion, there’s a “mismatched” list of active ingredients between the labeling and the electronic listing file. The listing file for the active ingredients did not match the active ingredients in the electronic file.

The Federal Trade Commission has gotten involved in a patent feud over Supernus’ Parkinson’s drug Apokyn, a case the agency said may have ‘‘significant implications” for patients who rely on the drug.

Sage Chemical won the first generic approval for its Apokyn formulation (also known as apomorphine hydrochloride injection) back in 2022. The non-ergoline dopamine agonist is approved to treat Parkinson’s symptoms during “off episodes,” such as difficulty moving, tremors and intense cramping. However, regulators specified that the approval pertained to the generic drug cartridges only, not the injector pen required for administration.

The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) last year sought to find ways to better coordinate large-scale clinical trials in the US — as the UK lead by example during the pandemic — especially for these emergency clinical trials.

The lobbying group PhRMA Tuesday called for more clinical trial diversity in underserved areas, including by making participation less of a burden, and expanding eligibility criteria when appropriate.

Today, we’re opening nominations for our fifth annual Women in Biopharma R&D special report.

Over the last four years, we’ve honored 80 women whose extraordinary accomplishments have changed the game in biopharma R&D. We’re looking for big thinkers, scientists, executives and other enterprising women who are breaking barriers in drug development and inspiring the next generation of leaders.