Health care company Baxter International plans to shutter its operations in Douglas County next year.
The Deerfield, Ill.-based Baxter on Thursday notified the state labor department that it would shut down its facility at 9540 Maroon Circle. In the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN, letter, Baxter said the site would close by March 31, 2017.
About 400 employees work at the facility, which has an Englewood address, according to information on Glassdoor.
According to the WARN notice filed Thursday, it appears that the reductions will occur in waves. The letter lists 106 positions — spanning engineering, marketing and quality assurance — that would be affected.
Baxter spokesman John O’Malley confirmed the site closure, but said he could not confirm the total number of employees that would be affected over the course of the next year.
“Baxter has informed employees in its Englewood, Colo., location of its plans to exit the facility over the next 12 months to enable effective deployment of the company’s product portfolio in order to best meet the needs of patients,” O’Malley wrote in an e-mailed statement. “With this decision, our primary goal is to minimize the disruption to the customers and the patients that we serve, and support our employees through the change.”
About 20 percent of the workforce in Douglas County is being offered the opportunity to work remotely or relocate to other Baxter facilities, O’Malley said. The severance packages include severance pay, continuation of certain benefits and outplacement services, he said.
Some of the affected workers were invited to relocate to northern Illinois or Largo, Fla., according to the WARN notice.
Baxter has owned the facility since 2011, when it acquired Douglas County-based .
Baxa specialized in developing medical devices including drug delivery systems that can allow for hospital pharmacists to customize treatment for specific patient populations. Baxa was viewed as a means for Baxter to expand its intravenous business.
The Douglas County Baxter site includes functions like research and development, manufacturing and support for the company’s Integrated Pharmacy Solutions business.
Baxter is evaluating where to transition the manufacturing that currently is occurring in Douglas County, O’Malley said.
“Baxter remains committed to its integrated pharmacy solutions business and, more broadly, to developing products that save and sustain lives worldwide,” he said.
In October, Baxter disclosed plans to cut about 1,400 jobs, about 5 percent of its non-manufacturing positions, by the end of 2015, at the time.
Alicia Wallace: 303-954-1939, awallace@denverpost.com or @aliciawallace
