Paper: Roche mulls 'massive' worldwide job cuts

Is Big Pharma due for another layoff? That's what the Swiss newspaper Sonntag is reporting, saying that Roche is putting the final touches on a global job-cutting plan. Sources tell the paper that a decision is expected at a scheduled management meeting this week. Roche itself tells Reuters that no layoff news will come that soon.

Sonntag's sources say that at a recent management meeting, Roche officials discussed "massive" job cuts across the company's pharma division. The cuts would hit sales and marketing, R&D, manufacturing and management. "This will not only concern a few hundred people but many more," one source tells the paper. "And the job cuts will not be made in one single country but on a worldwide scale."

The company isn't as willing to talk as Sonntag's unnamed sources are. "It's too early to speculate on this," Roche spokeswoman Claudia Schmitt tells Bloomberg. "There will be no decisions made this week." Another Roche spokesperson tells Reuters, "We are always working to improve productivity and will continue to do so. But it is too early to speculate on potential job cuts."

- check out the story from Reuters
- see the Bloomberg news

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