Published: November 01, 2007 11:44 pm         

Top Pfizer executive visits Terre Haute plant

TERRE HAUTE — A top Pfizer executive made a brief visit Wednesday to the pharmaceutical giant’s Vigo County plant in a show of support, a company spokesman said.

Natale S. Ricciardi, president and team leader of Pfizer Global Manufacturing and a senior vice president of Pfizer Inc., had been planning to visit the Terre Haute facility since the October 18 announcement that the company was ending production of Exubera, an inhaled insulin product, the spokesman said.

Pfizer decided to stop making Exubera after disappointing first-year sales.

Ricciardi wanted to meet with the Vigo County “site leadership team and express his support during this uncertain time,” said company spokesman Rick Chambers in an e-mail.

Ricciardi repeated that Pfizer is still reviewing its options for the Vigo County plant and no decision has been made regarding its future as of yet, Chambers added.

Ricciardi is responsible for Pfizer’s global manufacturing and the company’s worldwide distribution network, according to a 2004 company media statement. A native of Italy, Ricciardi has been with Pfizer for more than 30 years and reports to the company’s chairman and CEO, the statement said.

Pfizer employs 750 people at its Terre Haute plant. Of those, 600 employees worked at the Exubera production center and are now on paid leave while the company weighs its options. Pfizer invested $300 million at the Vigo County plant to make Exubera, a product that largely failed to gain acceptance among diabetes patients and their doctors.

Pfizer is still uncertain of the next steps for the Terre Haute facility, Chambers said. “We’re the same place we were two weeks ago,” he said. “We’re still looking at our options and no decisions yet.”

Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.