layoffs

Sanofi to cut 817 French reps

Tracy Staton — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:14:57 -0400

Sanofi-Aventis' French sales reps aren't happy right now. The company is following through on its previously announced plans to trim its sales unit in France. Although the number of layoffs has not yet been determined, Sanofi said it would cut 817 from the sales ranks, about one-third of its present force. Another 110 jobs will fall to the axe at company HQ. The company says it will try to avoid outright layoffs as much as possible by reassigning workers; some 150 already have agreed to new posts elsewhere in the company.

These cuts come on top of a worldwide trimming of Sanofi's sales force over the past two years. Some 2,900 sales jobs were cut away in the U.S. and Europe by February 2008, about 5 percent of the worldwide total. In the U.S. alone, the sales ranks thinned by 18 percent to 7,800 people.

It's been a tough year for pharma sales reps. Big Pharma has been slashing their jobs by the thousands, with Merck, Wyeth, Schering-Plough and others announcing big-time sales layoffs. Plus, reps have been locked out of some academic medical centers, told to get a license by the District of Columbia's local government and barred from handing out tchotchkes in Massachusetts. Even the industry's own association, PhRMA, has curtailed reps' activities with a new marketing code.

- read the story from Dow Jones
- check out the Wall Street Journal's article

GlaxoSmithKline to axe 850 jobs in R&D

Calisha Myers — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:04:04 -0400

Moving forward with its restructuring plan, GlaxoSmithKline announced to employees via email today that it would be laying off as many as 850 (6%) employees in its research and development units in the U.K. and in the U.S. Although the company has yet to determine exactly how many employees will be laid off, the cuts will be concentrated in its preclinical and early-stage drug development teams, and will include scientists as well as administrative staff.

"We have started consultation on proposals which could impact 850 roles within research and development in the U.K. and the U.S.," spokeswoman Claire Brough told the International Herald Tribune. "These changes are necessary as part of GlaxoSmithKline's longer-term strategy to ensure that we can invest in key areas of future growth and evolve our business to compete effectively in what is a rapidly changing and challenging environment for pharmaceutical companies."

At this time last year, GlaxoSmithKline announced a major overhaul that would cut $1.4 billion in costs and 5,000 jobs over four years. Much of the slimming down has been focused on the research and development teams. The British drug maker has since axed 350 jobs in R&D, 90 in a manufacturing plant in Zebulon and closed a manufacturing facility with a workforce of 900 in Puerto Rico.

- read the News & Observer article

Pfizer layoff talk boosts stock

Tracy Staton — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:30:34 -0400

While the financial markets teeter, Pfizer stock closed 4 percent higher yesterday as rumors of more layoffs swirled. Never mind that Pfizer already announced big job cuts; the actual implementation appears to be cheering investors as it scares the drugmaker's rank-and-file. Derek Lowe at In the Pipeline hears from his Pfizer sources that employees are being told to expect "deep cuts," with more details--and some actual pink slips--hitting in two weeks.

As you know, a Pfizer exec announced earlier this week that about $800 million in cost cuts were coming during the fourth quarter. Now, word that those cuts could include jobs are making analysts tout Pfizer shares. "I think the 7 percent yield is increasingly attractive in the current environment," uber-analyst Barbara Ryan of Deustche Bank told MarketWatch, referring to Pfizer's vaunted dividend. Ryan also said word of layoffs, plus Pfizer's strong cash position, are boosting the stock.

- read the story at MarketWatch
- check out the In the Pipeline post

Pfizer: $800M in cuts to hit 4Q

Tracy Staton — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:19:28 -0400

Pfizer's pharma chief gave an update on the drugmaker's restructuring, and the news is that the company has slashed $1.2 billion off 2006 cost levels since the reorg was announced. And, Ian Read told analysts and investors, Pfizer expects to have cut a total of $2 billion by year's end. Most of the remaining reductions--all $800 million of them--will come in the fourth quarter. Is that a hint of more job cuts?

Meanwhile, the company is trying to boost revenues in advance of Lipitor's slide off patent in 2011. It's launching the stop-smoking remedy Chantix in nine additional countries. It's mounting a big ad push for Lyrica, targeting fibromyalgia patients. That antidepressant is the only drug now FDA-approved to treat the condition. And it's planning to tweak existing products that have gone off-patent or will soon--either by creating new dosages or seeking new uses or other changes--to the tune of $3 billion in addition revenues.

Plus, the drugmaker is growing its sales forces in emerging markets--are you listening, you laid-off and possibly bilingual pharma reps? The seven countries with the largest projected sales growth: Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, and Turkey. Read sees another $3 billion in new sales via this strategy. And in the U.S., Pfizer is switching from having a sales force for each individual drug, to having sales reps talk up a variety of Pfizer brands, depending on each doctor's needs.

- read the Orlando Sentinel story

Schering to axe 1,000 reps

Tracy Staton — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:53:06 -0400

Record a new addition to the bloodbath in pharma sales departments. Schering-Plough plans to axe 1,000 reps, or 20 percent of its sales force. The cuts will come quickly: The company's goal is to get them done by next month.

Part of Schering's previously announced restructuring, the sales cuts are nevertheless deeper than those in other departments. In April, CEO Fred Hassan laid out a framework of payroll cuts that would save $1.5 billion by 2012. The layoffs would amount to 10 percent of Schering's 55,000-strong workforce--half the percentage now slashed from the sales ranks.

As you know, Schering is far from alone in laying off employees in general, and sales reps in particular. Most Big Pharma firms, plus a Big Biotech or two, have announced restructuring plans that include thousands of layoffs. In sales, those sharing the pain include reps from Merck (1,200), Wyeth (1,200), and Sanofi-Aventis (800). And those are just the ones we already know about.

- read the scoop at Pharmalot

UCB revamps with 2,000 job cuts

Maureen Martino — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 08:40:52 -0400

Yet another pharma company is hopping on the layoff bandwagon. In an effort to become a focused central nervous system and immunology disease company--and prepare for patent expirations--Belgium's UCB Pharma is reallocating €300 million over the next three years and cutting 2,000 jobs. That's about 17 percent of the company's workforce.

The drug developer said about 2400 positions will become redundant, but that it will be creating around 400 new jobs. Three hundred other positions will be re-deployed to UCB's core sites. The company's top drug--the anti-epileptic treatment Keppra--will lose patent protection in January. The allergy drug Zyrtec also went off patent in the U.S. at the end of 2007. "Patent expires are challenging times," said Roch Doliveux, CEO of UCB.

The €300 million investment, part of the company's SHAPE project announced earlier this month, will boost UCB's CNS and immunology programs while improving the company's competitiveness.

"...[F]ollowing the recent approval of Cimzia for Crohn's disease in the U.S. and the positive opinions for Neupro for RLS and Vimpat for epilepsy in Europe, the time is now to take action to shape UCB for the future and become a specialist company focused on successfully delivering our new medicines to patients," explained Doliveux.

- check out UCB's release
- read this article for more

Abbott to lay off 1,000 more

Tracy Staton — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:35:23 -0400

Same song, dozenth verse: Abbott Laboratories became the latest Big Pharma to announce another round of layoffs. This time, the company plans to slice 1,000 jobs, or about 1.5 percent of its global work force, over the next three and a half years. But the cuts will largely come in its diagnostics unit, which makes tests for heart and metabolic diseases, and infections.

Abbott, of course, makes most of its dough in drugs, but diagnostics made up $1 billion of its $7.3 billion in second-quarter sales. The unit had grown 17 percent over the same quarter last year. But Abbott wants to boost efficiency there anyway. "We're really being proactive with this initiative to strengthen the business and improve its profitability and competitiveness," an Abbott spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal.

As part of the streamlining plan, the company will move some manufacturing to plants in Ireland and Germany, to be closer to European customers and eliminate redundancies.

These layoffs come on top of 1,200 job cuts the company announced last December. Those affected a stent-making facility in Galway, Ireland, which the company planned to shut down, and another facility in Temecula, California.

- read the WSJ story

New Jersey feels pain of pharma employment drop

Christe Bruderlin-Nelson — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:49:41 -0400

A survey released yesterday shows a drop in employment of 1 percent in 2007 from the previous year across the 22 members of the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey, which include companies like Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Roche. Pharma layoffs are the reason for the dip.

The decline is small, but significant in light of industry growth overall.

As we all know, many big pharma companies call New Jersey home, and pharma is one of the key industries of state.

According to the survey, the total New Jersey payroll rose to $7.7 billion, an increase of 1.3 percent. Overall, the economic impact to the state increased by 3.8 percent to $27 billion in 2007.

Nevertheless, members of the group say that they are spending more on research and development and working on new products and drugs. Spending increased by $7.9 billion and was up by 5.3 percent. The survey did not account for biotech companies or companies with pharma workers in New Jersey if the company was headquartered elsewhere.

In the meantime, there might be an additional pharma exodus or two planned from New Jersey, depending on current M&A activities, and California seems to be the hot place for big pharma to go. Roche, for one, has said it too will move its headquarters to California if its deal with Genentech goes through.

--read the story at CNN Money
--see what they're saying at NJ.com
--find the Pharmalot blog post

Chemists laid off at GlaxoSmithKline

Christe Bruderlin-Nelson — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 08:30:44 -0400

GlaxoSmithKline's June announcement that it was cutting 350 jobs worldwide is coming to fruition. The company just laid off 22 scientists at its Medicinal Chemistry and Oncology Department in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

Already this summer, the company laid off nearly 200 workers, with half in its research department in June and about 90 more from a manufacturing plant in Zebulon. Company spokespeople say its just part of GSK's overall R&D "restructuring" plan to increase research and development and make manufacturing more efficient.

- read more at the News & Observer
- see the Herald Sun story

Big pharma to close 26 more plants

Christe Bruderlin-Nelson — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:40:49 -0400

Well, big pharma doesn't appear to be the safe haven for investors or employees these days. The Industrial Info Resources' Pharmaceutical Tracker has revealed that there are at least 26 plants poised for shutdown. This is in addition to those J&J, Pfizer and Schering-Plough and other layoffs we keep hearing about, and employees in pharmaceutical advertising and marketing might take the biggest hit.

Why the slump? The combination of a down economy coupled with patent expirations, negative press about popular medications, fewer prescriptions being filled and some FDA difficulties might be to blame. Continued rumors about layoffs and plant closures are unlikely to help much, either.

- read the report
- get the story in BusinessWeek
- see more at Market Watch
- here's World of DTC Marketing's take

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