More than 120 Western New York employees of Athenex Inc. are scheduled to lose their jobs by mid-August as part of the bankrupt biopharmaceutical company’s wind down of its business.
That’s according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filing that Athenex sent to the state Labor Department in recent days, which was posted online Tuesday. The WARN Act requires businesses to provide early warnings of closures and mass layoffs to all affected employees, union representatives, the Labor Department and local workforce development boards.
In the notice, Athenex said that 123 employees in Western New York will be separated, with those scheduled to occur in phases. Those cuts began May 12, with additional phases to come June 29 and Aug. 11.
The notice provides clarity about the projected local impact from Sunday’s announcement that Athenex had voluntarily filed for bankruptcy. As part of that announcement, Athenex said it had reached an agreement with its lenders to move forward with selling assets across its primary businesses: Athenex Pharmaceutical Division, Orascovery and Cell Therapy.
Athenex, founded as Kinex Pharmaceuticals two decades ago, had been one of the great hopes for building the medical industry in the region and the recipient of millions in funding from the state.
…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply