CHENANGO COUNTY – Norwich Pharmaceutical has a long history of caring for its community, and that history continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Norwich Pharmaceuticals Senior Site Director Tami Watson, Norwich Pharmaceutical is an Alvogen company which originated in the City of Norwich in 1887.
“The Alvogen manufacturing facility is located just north of Norwich on State Highway 12 and was constructed in the late 1970’s. Over the past sixyears, there has been significant investment in the facility, bringing it into modern standards of pharmaceutical production.”
Watson said Alvogen is a global, privately owned pharmaceutical company focused on developing, manufacturing and selling generic, brand, over-the counter (OTC) and biosimilar products for patients around the world.
The company is headquartered in Reykjavik, Iceland with commercial operations in 20 countries with 1,700 employees with 550 in the US of which 300 are based in the Norwich facility, and operates four manufacturing and development hubs in the U.S., Korea and Taiwan.
Watson discussed the progression and challenges of Alvogen in 2020 and said an ongoing capital project and creating a COVID-19 team were some of the major initiatives. “In addition, Alvogen received a Workforce Development Institute Grant in 2020 applied to the managerial coaching program.”
“We have an on-going three-year capital project underway in support of the high complexity products manufactured at the facility,” Watson said, “During the initial phase of the pandemic, we delayed due to COVID-19.”
She said as of the fourth quarter of 2020, they have re-engaged and are moving forward on this project. “We will be continuing with our capital project and have multiple product launches planned for 2021.”
Watson said in addition to its ongoing projects, a Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) COVID-19 team was established in 2020 which is responsible for ensuring the site safety and wellbeing of the employees as well as ensuring they are always current with the DOH, NYS and Federal guidelines.
“This team is the ‘Go To’ for any questions or concerns our employees may have, which ensures consistency across all departments and functions,” she said. “In addition, all communication for the site is provided by the CORE COVID-19 team.”
“This includes facility signage, team meeting updates and email communication which includes links to applicable resources.”
She said the company then established a second team responsible for the overall incoming supply chain with supporting mitigation and contingency plans for any potential supply chain disruptions.
She added that going forward they will proceed to utilize these two teams while they continue the recovery process.
“Extremely fluid guidance changes at the onset of the pandemic were challenging to ensure continued compliance,” said Watson. “The CORE COVID-19 team assigned members to continually monitor all state and federal guidance as well as have a member attend all Chenango County DOH briefings.”
“This enabled the site to ensure best practices with all DOH & State guidance.”
Watson said as with most companies, the employees at Alvogen that are not manufacturing or directly supporting the manufacturing of products have been working remotely.
She said in some cases, this required reorganization of resources responsible for certain processes. She added that for both the in plant and remote workforce, adapting to a virtual meeting format.
“In addition to our workplace communications, we also ensure we are communicating to our employees any guidance that may affect them outside of the work environment,” said Watson.
“As we continue to navigate through the COVID landscape our focus will stay with the protection of our employees and product supply assurance.”
“We have not had reduction in staff but have increased our staff through local temporary employee agencies, this has allowed us to offset COVID related absenteeism with quarantine needs,” she added. “Some of the temporary employees have been hired for permanent opportunities.”
“Our biggest asset is our employees and their resilience which have enabled us to and continue to overcome challenges and be able to continue to produce lifesaving products. Some of the challenges required process changes implemented due to having employees remote and have resulted in benefits that we will continue moving forward.”
Watson also discussed some of the challenges besides COVID-19 and ways Chenango County government assisted during the pandemic.
“In the past five years we have seen increased activity in the area with our corporate neighbors and organizations with regards to growth and development, which comes with the challenge for securing talent,” she said. “One of our biggest challenges is retention as it pertains to hiring of college graduates.”
“We have seen a pattern of employment length of two to three years for the individual to gain experience and then moving on to other opportunities and relocating to various regions.”
She added local governments could help with that issue by continuing to lead and develop opportunities for people to stay within the communities in terms of retention and attraction to the community.
Watson said one of big community events that had to be cancelled due to COVID-19 was Alvogen Day as well as the impact the virus had on other charity efforts as well.
“As many of our employees and families reside in the community, over the past several years we have put significant focus on our “Alvogen Day” where we close the site for a day and all of our employees perform community service and clean-up projects,” she said. “In addition to this Alvogen runs an internal United Way Campaign, Food Drive and Charitable Golf Outing.”
“Although we were unable to hold our “Alvogen Day” and Golf Outing Fundraiser this year, our employees held a virtual United Way Campaign raising more than $24,000 during the pandemic which is a huge achievement by the employees. A variation of our yearly food drive was also completed whereby employees donated cash versus canned and dry goods.”
Alvogen Senior Human Resource Manager Luke Murphy also spoke about the organization’s nonprofit efforts and said not being able to be as active in the community was difficult, but necessary to keep everyone safe during the pandemic.
“It was certainly a huge letdown for all of us, but we’re hopeful that we can put all of that extra energy into an event for 2021,” said Murphy. “We really want to credit any and all efforts that were made in 2020 to the hardworking teams we’ve got here at Norwich Pharmaceuticals.”
“They helped make the best out of a very difficult situation, and we’re extremely grateful for that.”