And the ax is falling again. Wyeth notified employees last Friday than another 1,200 jobs will be slashed from the payroll. That's on top of the 1,240 sales jobs [1]slated for elimination last month.

The cutbacks are part of "Project Impact," a restructuring plan Wyeth hopes will help it grapple with impending generic competition and FDA-approval setbacks. Blockbuster heartburn treatment Protonix has already been losing to generic competition, so much so that the company introduced its own generic version [2]. In 2007, the FDA declined to approve Wyeth's osteoporosis candidate bazedoxifene (Viviant) and its schizophrenia med bifeprunox [3]. Though Wyeth finally got its Effexor replacement Pristiq approved for depression [4], it was sent back to the drawing board on an indication for menopause.

- see the news [5] at Pharmalot

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