layoffs

Pfizer plant in Michigan to cut 275

Tracy Staton — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:01:03 -0400

Pfizer is cutting 275 jobs at its biggest manufacturing plant in its latest restructuring move; the job eliminations in Kalamazoo, MI, will affect supervisory and support staff, and some operational staff such as project engineers. The layoffs are on top of the company's previously announced restructuring moves. "We operate in a highly competitive and constantly changing environment, and we have to adapt to that," A spokesman told the Kalamazoo Gazette.

The cuts will leave some 2,500 manufacturing workers at the Kalamazoo facility and 3,200 employees there altogether. The plant makes a variety of drugs, including the antibiotic Zyvox and the contraceptive injection Depo-Provera.

- read the K-zoo Gazette story
- see the article at the Canadian Press

Pharma sales undergoes major shift

Tracy Staton — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:50:24 -0400

Pharma sales forces have been falling under the ax a lot lately. The latest: Boehringer Ingelheim plans to halve its neurology sales force, Pharmalot reports. Some 200 reps will be affected; some may find new slots in primary care sales or on another specialty team, but only if there are posts to be filled there.

Now, 200 cuts may not seem like a lot compared with the 1,200 slashed out of the Wyeth sales ranks or 1,200 from Merck's sales force or the 700-800 sales layoffs at Sanofi-Aventis. But looking at pharma sales in the aggregate, it's tough to miss the fact that it's seeing a major restructuring. Not just a winnowing among the staff, though that's a big part of it. But spending on sales looks to be on the decline as well.

Extrapolating from PhRMA's new marketing code--which prohibits individual reps wining-and-dining docs out of the office--In Vivo concludes that drugmakers want to dial back on that expensive sales-budget line item. Reps will be able to bring cheap food like pizza into docs' offices when there's an educational presentation going on and can attend outside-the-office dinners if they're handling logistics for an expert presentation. But otherwise, their doc-dining will be nil. (Other company execs can take doctors out, however.) It's a change that could save drugmakers a lot of money, In Vivo concludes, freeing it up for more consumer marketing or new media initiatives. And it's a sea change, too, away from the personal sales that have dominated in the industry for decades.

- see the In Vivo post
- check out the Boehringer news at Pharmalot

New Jersey loses 800 pharma jobs

Christe Bruderlin-Nelson — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:22:01 -0400

Schering-Plough will cut a minimum of 500 jobs starting on August 11^th in New Jersey as part of a much larger plan to layoff 5,500 employees across the globe. At the same time, Johnson & Johnson will send about the same number of employees packing when it cuts nearly 300 jobs nationwide and shifts 260 positions out of New Jersey.

The Schering-Plough layoffs will be mainly be at its Kenilworth facility, but will also affect facilities in Berkeley Heights, Roseland, Springfield, Summit and Union. The shifted J&J positions will move to Pennsylvania and will become part of the company's Centocor subsidiary following a merger of the unit with its Ortho-Biotech unit.

Abbott Labs also announced it would move 83 positions in Parsippany to its research headquarters in Abbott Park, IL, also in August.

- read the full story at Newsday
- get the local news at NJ.com
- here's more at the Pharmalot blog

Mylan to cut 100 in Puerto Rico

Tracy Staton — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:58:09 -0400

Workers in Caguas, Puerto Rico, braced for the axe as Mylan announced it would eliminate 100 of the 500 positions at that manufacturing plant. The generics maker announced back in March that it would embark on a big restructuring plan to cut costs, eliminating some jobs in the process, but this the first tangible evidence of that plan in motion. In cutting back on the manufacturing side, Mylan joins a host of other drugmakers, some of which have shuttered entire plants as they streamline operations and outsource more operations. In Puerto Rico alone, pharma has sliced some 3,000 jobs.

- read the Associated Press story
- see the Pharmalot post

Ailing GlaxSmithKline to axe 350 R&D workers

Maureen Martino — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:02:51 -0400

In an effort to shake up an organization that has produced few major advances recently, GlaxoSmithKline announced plans to axe 350 jobs in its R&D operations. The cuts--part of a major restructuring announced last fall--will terminate staffers at three labs in the U.S., Italy and Germany. These layoffs reflect the CEO Andrew Witty's strategic move to look outside the company for innovations in drug technology. Report

Sanofi confirms sales rep layoffs

Tracy Staton — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 11:39:52 -0400

It's been rumored for weeks, and now Sanofi-Aventis is confirming. Yes, the French drugmaker will cut jobs at home in France. Details are sketchy, but here's what we know: Sanofi will lay off 700 to 800 sales reps. That's about one-third of the company's domestic sales force. And the cuts will go deeper than expected; union officials had been bracing themselves for 400 to 600 job losses.

Of course, Sanofi is far from alone in cutting back its sales force this spring. Last month, Merck said it's cutting 1,200 sales reps, and in April, Johnson & Johnson announced 400 cuts in sales and marketing. In March, it was Wyeth saying it would slice 1,200 off the sales payroll.

- see the brief for more

Fortune snubs Big Pharma in employers list

Tracy Staton — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 09:56:34 -0400

Looking for the best employers? Don't look at Big Pharma. The annual Fortune magazine list of the 100 "Best Companies to Work For" contains only one Big Pharma name: AstraZeneca, at No. 83. Genentech, a biotech certainly worthy of the "Big" label, made the top 10 for the third year in a row (this year it's No. 5). But aside from AstraZeneca, none of the traditional pharma biggies got the nod this year. Over the past three years, only Eli Lilly popped onto the list, just once.

Given the fact that the industry has been roiled by layoffs and restructurings, the lack of major drugmakers in a best-employer ranking probably isn't that surprising. People working in fear for their jobs don't generate a lot of, shall we say, positive energy. Morale tends to suffer when the axe falls. So this conspicuous absence is just another sign that pharma is living through some interesting times.

- see the Fortune list
- check out the Pharmalot item

Merck layoffs inspire poets to versify

Thu, 08 May 2008 06:59:54 -0400

Curious what one laid-off Merck rep thinks about the company's latest cost-cutting move? He (or she) is not calling it "Plan to Win" as Merck is, that's for sure. No, the wounded one waxed poetical on CafePharma's company board: "'Twas the night before layoffs and all through the house," is how the tale of woe begins. Our favorite stanza? "Oh it was a nice run, Merck once had great style/But then along came the results of the Enhance Trial/I thought a nice long career was gonna be mine/Now I'm riding my bike to the unemployment line."

- read the rest at the Pharma Marketing Blog
- get more about the "Plan to Win" moniker at Seeking Alpha

Merck to cut 1,200 sales reps

Tue, 06 May 2008 06:59:58 -0400

The axeman cometh to Merck's sales force. The drugmaker plans to lop off about 15 percent in the sales ranks, or 1,200 jobs. The fact that it's not alone in trimming back on reps--Wyeth just announced it would slash its sales force by 1,200--likely isn't much comfort to Merck's rank-and-file.

The reasons for the cuts probably aren't comforting either, though they're as obvious as the signature on a letter from the FDA. The agency just refused to approve Cordaptive, a cholesterol med Merck was hoping might grow to blockbuster status. And then there are the lingering Vytorin woes: Since the Enhance study results were first announced in January, sales have fallen off significantly, though they did manage a 1.6 percent year-over-year increase in the first quarter. Plus, the company says that it's completed the launch of eight meds and vaccines since 2006, and is scaling back the sales forces for those products. Which means, in essence, that there's a lull in new launches.

The cuts are part of an ongoing cost-control program, the company said in announcing them. But "with an unexpected delay in a new product approval," the company decided to accelerate their pace. Reps will be notified by the end of the month whether they're to stay or go.

- see Merck's release
- check out the item in the Wall Street Journal Health Blog
- read the the WSJ article

J&J laying off 400 in marketing overhaul

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:59:56 -0400

With Procrit under siege, Johnson & Johnson wants to divert its promotional efforts elsewhere--a strategy that will lead to some 400 job cuts in its sales-and-marketing ranks. The company told employees it would consolidate sales-and-marketing operations of Ortho Biotech and Centocor and shave the payroll accordingly.

With Procrit sales sinking ever since the FDA put new safety warnings on its class of anemia drugs, J&J wants to "free up resources that can be redeployed to opportunities that will make the greatest difference to patients and to our own future success as a business." Translation: Heavily marketing Procrit won't help that drug, so why not concentrate sales efforts somewhere we can see some ROI?

- read the Star-Ledger article