The recent announcement that Mylan, now Viatris, will shutter their Morgantown manufacturing facility and eliminate 1,500 jobs in the process leaves us all with an inexplicable empty feeling and sense of hopelessness. It serves as a brutal realization that longstanding state businesses can be ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ due to factors not abundantly clear to us.  

If State leadership had advance warning or insight into the reasons for Viatris’ decision, could they have convinced them to continue operations?  While it appears not, this decision serves as a wakeup call.

Similarly, as we work to diversify our economy and recruit new industries to locate in West Virginia, we must be cognizant of the whims of the marketplace and its impact on new business ventures. Do these prospective ventures have the staying power to ride out a market downturn or the enticement of a merger or, more generally, the lure of greener pastures somewhere else?