Lilly calls latest Indiana job cuts 'permanent'

Pharma's new international focus isn't just a temporary stopgap--at least not for Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY). The company notified the state of Indiana that it's not planning more layoffs at four sites. Lilly also broke the news that the layoffs aren't merely cost-cutting measures to get the company through a rough patch, but forever.

"The reductions in force at the Indianapolis sites of employment are expected to be permanent," Kay Jackson, Lilly's senior director of human resources, writes in a letter to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, according to the Indianapolis Star.

The layoffs are part of the 5,500 jobs Lilly said it would cut in a company-wide restructuring. But a Lilly spokeswoman reminds the IndyStar that those 5,500 cuts are separate from the staffing-up planned for emerging markets such as China.

Shrinking at home, growing overseas--Lilly's hardly alone. Attracted by the promise of big growth in India, China, Russia, Brazil and more, drugmakers are deploying resources--and hiring new staff--to take advantage. Meanwhile, they're cutting back in the slower-growing mature markets like the U.S. It's a major shift, and, as Lilly notes, a long-term one.

- read the IndyStar piece