A pharmaceutical company has announced plans to close its plant in Hampshire with the loss of 555 posts.
The Eli Lilly site in Basingstoke has 445 employees and 111 contractors.
Eli Lilly said about 100 people could be eligible for early retirement, some will be offered redeployment but about 300 workers will be made redundant.
The company said the closure is subject to with employees. Andrew Hotchkiss, managing director, said the cuts were caused by “”.
The firm currently manufactures medicines which include Zyprexa, a treatment for severe mental illness and Cialis, a treatment for erectile dysfunction.
The company said the closure plans would not have any impact on patients using the medicines.
Mr Hotchkiss said: “Proposing this site closure has been extremely difficult as we are reluctant to lose the , highly-motivated people who work at the site.
“The announcement today is based on the fact that there is over-capacity in Lilly’s dry product manufacturing network.
“We have conducted an analysis of our requirements in the dry product area, and whilst these medicines remain important for Lilly, sales forecasts over the next decade indicate that we have too much capacity both now and in the long-term.”
Local MP Maria Miller said she was concerned at the for the wider manufacturing base in Basingstoke.
The town is home to a number of hi-tech manufacturing industries and Mrs Miller said she was anxious that other firms did not follow Eli Lilly’s lead.
The company has a research facility in Windlesham, Surrey, and a biotechnology manufacturing facility at Speke on Merseyside.
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