New owner of Leskovac-based Zdravlje - Watson Pharmaceuticals takes over Actavis?

Ten workers of the pharmaceutical plant Zdravlje from Leskovac have been laid off without a previous notice. Each of these dismissed production, control and administrative workers has obtained a severance pay of EUR 350 per year of work.

Explaining the reason for their dismissal, the employer says that the new owner plans to reduce the production of drugs, the regional info agency Jugpress reports.

According to Jugpress, the US pharmaceutical company Watson Pharmaceuticals has acquired Actavis, thus buying Leskovac-based Zdravlje as well, and takeover activities should be completed within the next two months.

The dismissed workers are bitter. They fear that another hundred of their 200 colleagues at Zdravlje will have the same destiny.

By the way, as foreign media report, Watson Pharmaceuticals will pay about EUR 5 billion for Iceland's Actavis and become one of the world's largest manufacturers of generic drugs upon the acquisition.

Tanjug news agency cited Actavis CEO Pavle Marjanovic as saying on Saturday (31 March 2012) that the information that the company planned a "dramatic downsizing" was absolutely not true and that the number of employees could only be increased.

Marjanovic did not want to comment on speculations about a change in the ownership structure of Actavis on the global level.