The request of the employees at Villa Guardia is to «make other products». It is good to focus on "Defibrotide", an experimental drug awaiting European and American authorizations to be sent into production, but "it is necessary to produce something else".
Otherwise, there would not be «enough work for the employees of the production departments». Adriano Masi, of the RSU CGIL of Gentium spa, goes straight to the point. «Focusing on this new drug – he says – is not enough.
After all, two months of production work are sufficient to produce a mass of product which is consumed in the following two years.
This being the case, it is clear that there is no great future for the workers in this department». In summary, the workers are against «the company decision to allocate all financial resources to the development of defibrotide», also because the same process «occupies only 10% of plant use, while the production of the drug Sulglicotide occupies the remainder» . It is a pity, however, that the sale of this second product has been strongly held back by the South Korean government, which Gentium was addressing.
The result was a clear contraction in orders, with the company's decision to ask for a further 13 weeks of layoffs (in addition to an equally long period already concluded) from the 26 employees employed along the production lines. Instead, the research and commercial departments are safeguarded.
"The workers - says the trade unionist Sandro Estelli (Cgil) - are asking for clear answers on the future of the company and believe that the same cannot be entrusted solely to the development of defibrotide". That's why the workers' assembly asked the top management to provide certain answers about the Sulglycotide market in Korea, about the possible diversification of production, about the search for new markets and about the production recovery which, to date, does not guarantee elements of certainty .
