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Angry with recent job cuts announced by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, protesters, this past Saturday, gathered in Basel and beside the villa of its former CEO and Chairman Daniel Vasella to express their displeasure with the company’s decision to layoff workers.

In Basel, about 1,000 people gathered and demanded that Novartis reverse its decision to layoff 1,100 people who work at the company. Meanwhile, about 20 protestors gathered in a field opposite Vasella’s walled lakeside Mansion. Two of the protestors handed Vasella a “fake pink slip” and according to witnesses he laughed and took the gesture in stride.

Vasella, who is not a stranger to protests, is one of Switzerland's highest-paid executives and in 2009 animal rights activists set fire to his Tirolean hunting lodge to protest Novartis’ use of animals to test pharmaceuticals and consumer products. 

Currently, the Occupy Wall Street movement in the US has primarily targeted banks and financial institutions. However, two weeks ago, a group of protestors in Croton, CT, staged a demonstration at Pfizer headquarters to express their anger a recent layoffs announced by the company.

Until next time...

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It seems that big pharma always waits for early Fall to announce pending job cuts. Novartis, Europe’s second largest pharmaceutical company, announced two days ago that it would eliminate 2,000 jobs mainly in the US and Switzerland but add new employees to operations in emerging markets like India and China. Novartis is just another addition to a growing list of big pharma companies that are slashing jobs in the US and Europe and hiring new employees in lower cost markets.

The announce cuts represent a 1 percent reduction in Novartis’ global workforce. The cuts will be implemented over the next three years and are predicted to save the company in excess of $200 million annually. 

According to a company spokesperson, Novartis will eliminate 1,100 jobs in Switzerland, with the balance in the U.S., Jimenez said. Some research will be moved to the U.S. from Switzerland, and reductions will be made in technical research and development, data management, clinical trial monitoring, drug safety and regulatory affairs. Novartis will add 700 positions in China and India in data management and trial monitoring.

As part of the reorganization and job cuts the company will close an over-the-counter drug manufacturing plant in Nyon, Switzerland and chemical production facilities in Basel and Torre, Italy.

The current cuts come after Novartis announced last November that it would eliminate 1400 U.S. sales jobs and more recently in March that it would reduce operations in the UK.

Although life science pundits recently suggested that job cuts in the pharmaceutical industry are slowing and may have hit rock bottom, it appears that the carnage is still taking place and will likely continue well into the future as more resources and monies are invested in emerging markets.

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The Pharmalot Blog today reported that a group of protesters aligned with the Occupy Wall Street movement will conduct a vigil at Pfizer's Groton,CT R&D facility to protests recent job cuts made by the company. 

Pfizer was targeted because it took tens of millions of dollars in local and state government subsidies to build an R&D facility in New London, Connecticut. But earlier this year, the company abandoned the facility and decided to transfer about 1,100 R&D job from Groton to Cambridge, Massachusetts.Also, the company jettisoned its antibacterial drug discovery efforts at the Groton facility and shipped those jobs overseas to China.  Roughly, 2,500 Pfizer jobs are leaving Connecticut which will likely have a negative impact on the state.

One protest leader quipped “When huge companies like Pfizer take tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in public money, and then pull up stakes as soon as the money disappears, that’s what wrong with our economy”

Also, Pfizer is one of the top US ten companies to shed employees despite an estimated $48.2 billion in offshore funds that the company does not pay any taxes on. Between 2004 and 2011, the company  laid off  58,071.

Don't be surprised if the Occupy Wall Street Movement spreads from the banking to the pharmaceutical industry.  At this point there appears to be little distinction between the two!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting

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Astra Zeneca today announced that it will eliminate 400 positions at the company’s Wilmington, DE headquarters. Most of the cuts will be in sales and marketing and the downsizing is intended “streamline portions of its commercial business to best serve patients in the US.”

According to a press release, about 70 of the estimated 400 job cuts will come from existing unfilled vacancies. Also, employees will have the option to choose to potentially leave the company with a possible package. All decisions will be finalized by early December.

Like many of its competitors, AstraZeneca is facing fierce competition from generic manufacturers and downward pricing pressures. The company currently employs 61,000 persons worldwide including 14,000 in North America.

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Piscataway, NJ-based Enzon Pharmaceuticals, the once venerable biotechnology that was the first to successfully commercialize protein PEGylation, yesterday announced that it plans to lay off nearly half its employees by the second quarter of next year.

The layoffs will leave Enzon with 47 employees. The company said that the layoffs are intended to align resources with the company's research and development activities. Enzon, once with a market valuation greater than Merck pharmaceuticals, has been steadily losing revenue over the past 10 years and had essentially abandoned R&D in the protein PEGylation field that it had pioneered. Over the same time period, the company had a succession of CEOs, each of whom had a different vision and strategic plan forward.

Enzon was founded in 1982 by Abe Abuchowski, PhD, who validated the commercial possibilities for protein PEGylation while a graduate student at Rutgers University. Abuchowski licensed the rights to protein PEGylation and formed Enzon several years after receiving his PhD degree. He took the company public in 1985 (a feat that was not easy to accomplish back in those days) and went on to use protein PEGylation to develop two products with orphan drug designations (Adagen and Oncospar) and PEG-Intron a second generation biopharmaceutical used to treat Hepatitis C infections.

Abuchowski was CEO and Chairmen of Enzon until 1996. He left the company that he created because its board decided that PEGylated small molecules rather than proteins ought to be the future focus of the company. Enzon abandoned its biopharmaceutical focus in favor of small molecules in the late 1990s. Although in recent years the company tried to resuscitate its protein PEGylation programs, the PEGylation industry had essentially passed the company by and they were no longer competitive.

Abuchowski is currently CEO and Chairman of Prolong Pharmaceuticals, a South Plainfield, NJ-based, company developing products targeting the treatment of anemia resulting from oxygen deficiency. Not surprisingly, many of the products in the company’s pipeline were developed using protein PEGylation technology. While others have contributed to the protein PEGylation field, Abuchowski is generally recognized as the first person to commercialize the technology. He has received numerous awards for his work in protein PEGylation; a technology that generates roughly $30 billion in drug sales annually.

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Abbott Laboratories today announced it is eliminating 160 jobs in an attempt to shore up its diagnostics business. Most of the job cuts (150) will take place at the company’s Santa Clara, CA production facility. The remaining jobs will be eliminated at Abbott’s North Chicago corporate headquarters. 

Similarly, Tarrytown, NY-based Progenics announced that it was undergoing a strategic reorganization and it will reduce headcount by 38 or 26% of its staff. The company recently closed it manufacturing facility and discontinued work in virology and infectious diseases, the therapeutic areas that the company was founded on almost 25 years ago. The company is now working in the oncology area and has a prostate cancer diagnostic monoclonal antibody in early clinical development. 

Progenics has one approved product, RELISTOR (methylnaltrexone bromide) a subcutaneous injection treatment for opioid-induced constipation. Regulatory approval is pending for the use of RELISTOR to treat chronic, non-cancer pain. A Phase III clinical trial of an oral formulation of methylnaltrexone is in progress.

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Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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Despite the fact that no new jobs were added to the US economy in August, things were pretty quiet in the pharmaceutical layoff space. From what I was able to find, it appears that Alcon Laboratories will be moving about 100 jobs from Atlanta to Fort Worth Texas (I was recently in Fort Worth for the first time and I extend my sympathies to those Atlantans that may make the move). The consolidation is taking place because Novartis purchased Alcon in April and after acquisitions these sorts of things happen. Nestle, another Swiss company, had a majority ownership in Alcon. 

Interestingly, there appears to be some consolidation also taking place in the contract manufacturing space. Contract Pharma announced that it would close its Buffalo, NY manufacturing facility (purchased from Bristol Myers Squibb in 2005) and eliminate 128 jobs. Those employees who do not lose their jobs may have an opportunity to work in a nearby Ontario, Canada site. Likewise, UK-based United Drug, another CMO, will cut 150 jobs because of government-led regulatory decision to reduce health spending.

While none of these announcements were particularly noteworthy, Sanofi-Aventis’ announcement today that it will cut $2.9 billion in costs over the next few years was somewhat shocking but not unexpected. Most of the cuts will be in R&D and there will undoubtedly be massive downsizing and reorganization. 

According to a post on today’s Pharmalot blog “a presentation indicates that research and development costs are in the process of being cut by 12 percent from 2008 to about $1.1 billion, excluding Genzyme. And the total headcount over this same period is being reduced by about 22 percent, from roughly 13,000 positions to about 10,000 jobs by the end of this year, again excluding Genzyme.”

Today’s announcement of cut back is consistent with Sanofi’s business strategy over the past year or so which included plant closings and large sales rep layoffs Again, the Pharmalot blog reported “The upcoming round involves slashing about $700 million in expenses from Genzyme, the biotech that Sanofi purchased recently, as oncology units in the Boston area are combined.”

The cost cutting measures are in response to the impending loss of patent exclusivity for several of its blockbuster products most notably Plavix and unexpected attrition in the company’s late stage clinical development portfolio. This year sales of products facing patent expiry are expected to decline to $4.2 billion as compared with $10.6 billion in 2008. To cope with these difficulties, Sanofi has gone on a buying spree over the last couple of years spending $23 billion to acquire various companies with Genzyme being the crown jewel.

Meanwhile, Sanofi plans to file for approval of six new drugs this year and hopes that it can introduce 19 new drugs by 2015. I suspect that Sanofi’s aggressive M&A strategy may help the company reach that goal. That said, if I was a Sanofi or Genzyme employee, I would be dusting off the old resume right about now.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!! 

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The French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis continues to reorganize and slash jobs in anticipation of its acquisition of Genzyme. Today the company disclosed that it would shed another 700 jobs from its European operations. The job cuts come amid the company’s reorganization of its units in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal Spain, Holland, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom (basically the entire EU).  The goal is to consolidate and reorganize the 30 European subsidiaries into only 10.

In other news, the Japanese drug maker Eisai announced that it plans on cutting 600 jobs or 20 percent of its US workforce. This announcement comes only one week after the company disclosed that it would trim 900 jobs in the next five years from European and Japanese operations. Impending generic competition for Eisai blockbuster treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, Aricept, is largely responsible for the layoffs. Like most other big pharmaceutical companies there aren’t enough drugs in development pipelines to offset the loss of revenue from generic encroachment on blockbuster brands.

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Many industry insiders and financial analysts were pleased when former Pfizer CEO Jeffrey Kindler abruptly departed the company last December. Most felt that the company had grown too large after three mega-mergers and acquisitions (Warner Lambert, Pharmacia and most recently Wyeth) in the past decade or so. Pfizer bought Wyeth in late 2009 for $67 billion with the hope that it bolster the company’s drug development pipeline and replace vanishing Lipitor revenue (the move has not paid off which may explain Kindler unexpected departure).

Further, Pfizer’s best selling (and world leading) cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor is due to lose patent protection in 2012. Lipitor had $10.7 billion in sales last year. This, along with the loss of patent protection for Viagra and a few other Pfizer prescription drugs, presumably left new CEO Ian Read, little choice but to slash R&D spending by close to $2 billion. Consequently, the company today announced it would close its research facility in Sandwich, England (which developed Viagra) and eliminate most of its 2,400 employees. An additional 1,000 employees at its research center in Groton, CT will either be offered transfers to its Cambridge, MA facility or layed off.

The elimination of 3500 Pfizer R&D employees begs the question “who will do the research to discover new drugs?” Not surprisingly, Pfizer’s answer is to outsource the work to Contract Research Organizations like Covance, Charles Rivers Laboratories and Parexel International Corp. Interestingly, much of this work is conducted by scientists who work outside of the US. And, if this down sizing trend continues how will the US ever get its unemployment rate below 10 percent?

Pfizer, like most other major US pharmaceutical companies, is no stranger to massive downsizing. The company alone has layed off over 19,000 employees over the past three years. And, unlike contractions in the life sciences industry in the past, I highly doubt that many of these R&D positions will be reinstated in the future. With this in mind, I highly recommend that those of you who were considering industrial R&D careers have a plan B or possibly a plan C to fall back on.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!

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According to a post on the Pharmalot Blog, Abbott Laboratories today announced that it will eliminate 1,900 jobs or six percent of its workforce. The company cited its thinning pipeline and the current challenging regulatory environment for the corporate reorganization and downsizing. In other words, we are having trouble getting our new drugs approved and we can’t afford to continue to pay people’s salaries and benefits who aren’t delivering for us. The Pharmalot post didn’t provide specifics on the layoffs.  However, Lisa Madden a Delta  Pharma Recruiter and BioCrowd member  sent me a message and told me that 1,000 of the layed off workers were onsite employees and the remaining 900 were sales reps

Like it or not, this is the new reality for life sciences R&D types, So, if I were a  graduate student or postdoc considering a career in the life sciences industry, I highly recommend a well developed and carefully thought out “Plan B.”

Until next time,

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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In press release today, Merck & Co disclosed that it reduced the size of its global sales force by 12 percent in 2010. Ken Frazier, Merck’s newly appointed CEO, pointed out that cuts in sales force sizes in developed markets like the US and Europe reached almost 30 percent. Yet, despite these cuts, Merck reported that it was able to boost sales in its vaccine and pharmaceutical business units.

Merck, like most other big pharmaceutical companies, have drastically reduced the sizes of their sales forces in recent years. The cuts have been attributed to higher than expected product attrition rates, product recalls and changes in physician preferences. It appears that many physicians grew tired of repeated visits by multiple reps after they were no longer allowed to give gifts or buy lunches for physician office staff. Further, many industry analysts contend that the advent of web-based marketing, social media and medical reimbursement overhaul (doctors no longer have time for reps) have largely rendered most pharmaceutical sales reps obsolete!

Other factors contributing to the recent demise of pharma reps are thin drug development pipelines, tougher regulatory standards for drug approval and impending patent cliffs (generic encroachment) for many blockbuster small molecule drugs. Put simply, fewer drugs require fewer people to sell them.

I think the death knell for pharma reps may be a bit premature. Many physicians find that well trained and informed sales rep can be a great resource and helpful to their practices.  Nevertheless, looking on the bright side, there is a growing need for sales reps that possess the background and training to sell biotechnology products! That said, unemployed pharma reps may want to consider going back to school to get some biotechnology training. This training is frequently available at local community colleges and four year colleges and universities and online.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!

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Despite signs earlier this summer that job cuts at pharmaceutical companies were beginning to slow, it appears that the number of jobs lost in 2010 may come close to the roughly 61,000 pharmaceutical jobs that were eliminated in 2009. This is based on quarterly Job-Cut Announcement Report published by the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. 

In past month or so, two big pharma companies, Roche and Novartis, announced that there will be major corporate reorganizations and deep job cuts to reduce spending, increase profits and bolster flagging stock prices. 

While things appear to be improving in other parts of the economy, the life sciences industry has been devastated by massive job layoffs in the past three years. Although pharma executives publicly blame the downsizing on the recession, massive R&D units, thinning pipelines and a failure to obtain a sufficient ROI on the huge sums of money poured into new drug development over the past decade are the real reason for the blood letting. Unfortunately, the US job market for life scientists won’t be improving anytime soon; mainly because it is more cost effective for companies to perform R&D and clinical testing in the emerging markets of China, India, Brazil and Russia (BRIC).

The ability of life sciences companies to successfully perform these activities outside of the US is in large part due to the lack of interest by American students in science careers and misguided immigration policies that prevented talented US-trained foreign nationals from remaining in the US after completing their training. This allowed many foreign countries to achieve a critical mass of US-trained life scientists and provide Western life sciences companies with a highly trained and well equipped scientific workforce.

With the holidays approaching, now may be a good time for those of you who work or considering careers in the life sciences industry to re-evaluate or consider alternate career options for life scientists.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!

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The German drug maker Bayer today announced that it plans to eliminate 4,500 jobs by 2012. Of the 4,500 positions to be cut, roughly 1,700 will be eliminated in Germany. Interestingly, during the same period, Bayer plans on creating 2,500 new jobs in “emerging markets;” yet another sign that big pharma is betting on translating the explosive growth of these markets into large profits.

While pharma’s interest in emerging markets may be good for the workers who live in these regions, it has been disastrous for scientists and sales personnel in developed markets like the US and Europe. To date, almost 200,000 pharmaceutical and biotechnology employees have lost their jobs since 2007.

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The Pharmalot Blog today reported that Abbott will be cutting about 3,000 jobs. The downsizing comes about a year after Abbott purchased Solvay Pharmaceuticals for about 6.2 billion but failed last month to find a buyer for the Solvay vaccine unit (which was expected to fetch about $600 million). 

According to the post, most of the jobs will be eliminated in R&D, manufacturing and commercial operations mainly at former Solvay Pharmaceutical sites in the Netherlands and Germany. Also, Solvay’s current US headquarters in Marietta Georgia will be closed in the near future.

Abbott has approximately 90,000 employees worldwide. While the recession may be officially over the job cuts continue and unemployment continues to rise.

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There are signs that the economy is improving and that unemployment levels have dropped from a high of 10.1 % to current levels which are hovering around 9.5 %. While this is good news, job cuts continue at many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as drug candidates fail in clinical trials and technological advances make certain employees dispensable.

Yesterday, Johnson and Johnson announced that it would layoff 300 of 400 employees who work at the Fort Washington, PA plant that was responsible for the recent Tylenol brouhaha and recall. According to a post on the Pharmalot blog:

”The employees are being let go because it is not clear when the plant will operate again. A J&J spokeswoman says the “best estimate” is the middle of 2011. It isn’t clear at this point whether or not any McNeil executives who oversaw operations at the troubled facility will also be shown the door."

In other news, Adolor, a Pennsylvania-based specialty drug maker, announced yesterday that it was laying off 30 workers or 30 per cent of its workforce to preserve capital and advance its opioid bowel dysfunction clinical development program through proof-of-concept studies in 2011. Also on Friday, the company stated in a press release that two new drug candidates it was developing with Pfizer to treat pain caused by osteoarthritis did not work better than a placebo in a Phase II clinical trial involving 400 patients. The company has one drug on the market, Entereg, a treatment that helps restore bowel function in adults who have undergone bowel re-section surgery. Earlier in the week, GlaxoSmithKline, which co-developed Entereg, scaled back its relationship with Adolor.

Finally, Eli Lilly & Co told its employees that it plans to cut 340 information technology jobs in 2010. Most of the cuts will take place in Indiana (Lilly’s corporate headquarters is in Indianapolis). The company has 1,350 information technology employees nationally. Earlier this year, Lilly has said it will eliminate 5,500 jobs by the end of 2011 to save $1 billion.

Until next time...

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The expanding European financial crisis is forcing drug makers to continue to explore ways in which to cut costs. Faced with budget deficits amid a global economic crisis, European countries such as Germany, France and Greece have cut or plan to cut their health-care spending. Greece last month ordered drugmakers, including France’s largest drug maker Sanofi-Aventis, to cut prices by 3 percent to 27 percent to help rescue its economy. 

Not surprisingly, Sanofi Aventis responded by announcing new job cuts and more stringent cost control measures. Yesterday, Sanofi’s Chief Financial Officer announced at an analyst meeting in Los Angeles that “We are restructuring. We are changing our marketing model. We are merging sales forces, we are reducing sales forces, having a multiproduct sales force. We will continue to do that.” Most of the job cuts and cost saving measures will come at the expense of sales and marketing personnel. The size of pharmaceutical R&D and sales and marketing workforces have been devastated over the past three years with over 200,000 employees losing their jobs.

Sanofi-Aventis Chief Executive Officer Chris Viehbacher, who joined the company in 2008, shut or sold plants and canceled the least promising research projects in a bid to trim 2 billion euros ($2.46 billion) in costs. These actions, coupled with the most recent restructuring efforts were enacted to ensure 2013 earnings are at least equal to 2008 profit. Like most other big pharma companies, Sanofi has been looking to emerging markets and consumer products for new income as competition from generic drugs hurts sales. The anti-clotting drug Plavix which is Sanofi’s largest selling drug generating over $4.0 billion annually will lose patent protection in 2011-2012. Bristol Myers Squibb, Sanofi’s marketing partner for Plavix in the US, also exceeded $4.0 billion in sales last year.

Sanofi also announced today that it acquired the assets of Montreal-based Canderm Pharma, Inc a consumer products company for $1.9 billion signaling its intention to aggressively enter the North American consumer healthcare products markets.

Until next time...

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Roche disclosed in a regulatory filing that it will plans to eliminate 500 positions in New Jersey by the end of this month, related to last year's acquisition of Genentech Inc., and plans to cut another 100 jobs in the state by June. While the cuts were expected after Roche acquired Genentech last year and announced it would move its US headquarters from Nutley, NJ to South San Francisco, it wasn’t clear how extensive the job loses would be. The company is closing down all manufacturing operations at the aging Nutley site.

This is more bad news for the State of New Jersey which has borne the brunt of the pharma downsizing trend that began in earnest about 4 years ago. As many of you may know, New Jersey has the highest concentration of pharmaceutical employees in the US. The loss of pharmaceutical jobs coupled with an enormous budget deficit suggests that it will be many years before New Jersey is able to recover from the economic downturn.

Roche, which had 2009 revenue of about $45.9 billion, employs more than 80,000 people worldwide.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (forget New Jersey)

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Ed Silverman, who runs the Pharmalot blog,reported today that AstraZeneca provided more details about its plan to layoff 8,000 employees or 12% of its workforce by 2014. 

According to the post, the company will R&D programs in thrombosis; acid reflux; ovarian and bladder cancers; systemic scleroderma; schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety; hepatitis C and vaccines (other than respiratory syncytial virus and influenza).

The company will shutter research facilities throughout the UK and Sweden and shed about 3,500 R&D jobs. About 550 jobs will be eliminated at AstraZeneca’s US headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware; adding to the massive numbers of unemployed pharmaceutical workers in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware region. The company is also looking for a buyer for its Arrow Therapeutics business.

AstraZeneca joins a growing number of big pharma companies that are jettisoning internal R& D programs in favor of licensing and merger and acquisition deals to sure up drug discovery pipelines. The lack of innovation in small molecule drug discovery and the loss in 2011 of patent protection for some of the industry’s largest blockbuster drug franchises is forcing big pharma companies to eliminate or outsource most of their R&D functions and capabilities to cut costs.  

I wish I could say that things will get better. But, the shift in the business model that has guided big pharma for close to 100 years is likely to be a permanent one. Now is the time to begin to consider alternative career paths!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (“Go West young man/man!”)

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Times are tough in the financially-struggling pharmaceutical industry and seemingly getting tougher.

First, Bristol-Myer Squibb (BMS) announced last week that it will freeze salaries but not cut yearly performance bonuses for its employees. One week later, Johnson & Johnson (J&J)—a company known not to be upstaged or outdone by a competitor—is planning on cutting the yearly performance-bonuses for 38% of its workforce and will freeze the salaries of certain other employees.

While BMS publicly announced its salary freeze, J&J plans were uncovered in an internal announcement and other company documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal. According to the Journal article, “The health-care giant told employees Jan. 25 that it is making the moves to standardize compensation across its various businesses and regions, thereby making it easier for its workers to move around within the company. In the U.S., the changes will bring bonus targets in line with market levels, one document said.”

Interestingly, J&J hasn't yet reported its CEO, William Weldon’s compensation for last year. In 2009, Mr. Weldon turned down a salary raise. His total compensation in 2008 fell 4.1% from the year before to $29.4 million, according to the most recent regulatory filing.

The salary freeze and bonus cuts help to explain why a good friend and lifelong J&J employee (25 years and counting) wasn’t too keen on the company during a visit earlier this week. During a conversation, in which I unknowingly lauded J&J’s treatment of its employees, my friend quipped “Looks can be deceiving; J&J is like every other big corporation. People really don’t matter—it’s all about P&L”

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Things are just not going well for Natick, MA-based device manufacturer Boston Scientific. Yesterday, the company announced that it lost $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter this year. The losses mainly stem from the company’s $1.73 billion settlement earlier this month with Johnson & Johnson ending a seven year patent dispute over drug-coated cardiovascular stents. Also, Boston Scientifics’ ill-advised purchase of medical device rival Guidant for $27 billion several years ago hasn’t helped matters.

The company said that it would cut as many as 1,300 jobs or 8 to 10 percent of its workforce to reduce operating expenses. Boston Scientifics’ decision to eliminate jobs follows similar moves made by several of its competitors last year. For example, last spring Medtronic, the largest device firm in the world, said it would eliminate at least 1,500 workers. In August, Minnesota rival St. Jude Medical eliminated 200 positions.

Device makers have seen their sales squeezed by safety recalls of top-selling products and cost cutting measures at hospitals because of the economic downturn. Also, new data suggest that drug-coated stents may not offer the benefits (over bare-metal stents) as previously thought. In fact, some physicians are beginning to reconsider the advantages of stents as compared with other surgical or pharmacologic interventions for certain cardiac patients.

While layoffs at medical devices manufacturers don’t come close to the massive layoffs in the pharmaceutical sector, don’t be surprised if other device manufacturers announce layoffs later this year.

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Many people, most notably GlaxoSmithKline employees, assumed that GSK management would disclose at its earning call yesterday how many people would lose their jobs in the company’s next round of job cuts announced earlier this week. Surprisingly, management decided not to announce the breadth and depth of layoffs ostensibly increasing the drama and anxiety of its employees about the cuts.

Management’s decision not to disclose the number of employees who would lose their jobs after publicly announced that it would cut up to 4,000 jobs means one of two things according to Jim Edwards of the BNET blog.

“Either that GSK itself has not finished calculating it; or that management believes there’s some sort of PR advantage to not actually saying out loud what everyone already knows.”  

Based on public statements made by GSK spokespeople, Edwards has identified several vulnerable areas where jobs are likely to be cut. These include R&D across the board and one therapeutic area, neuroscience. According to bloggers and insiders who leaked information to the public, the asthma drug Advair may be at risk, as well as metabolic disease product development and sales representatives. Also, there will be reporting structure changes and less emphasis will be place on new product launches in the US. The recent decision to not seek US regulatory approval for GSK’s new, pneumococcal vaccine Synflorix, despite garnering EU approval tends to substantiate this idea.

Elimination of neuroscience as a therapeutic area of interest for GSK was clearly enunciated when the company mentioned during the earnings call

 “Today, we have announced proposals to cease discovery research in selected neuroscience areas, including depression and pain.”

Today, GSK announced that it would close a research center in Verona Italy that specializes in neuroscience research. Approximately 500 workers will lose their jobs after the facility is closed. Unions representing the Italian workers also disclosed in an e-mail message that six facilities worldwide besides Verona will also be closed by GSK.

Less obvious, but clearly written between the lines was the statement made about R&D.

"We have ‘externalised’ approximately 30% of GSK’s discovery research. We are already conducting discovery research with 47 external partners. Our goal is to further increase the level of externally sourced compounds in our pipeline …"

"… We are also looking to reduce R&D infrastructure costs."

Perhaps what may be most troubling to GSK employees who ultimately lose their jobs is the $900 million or more spent on legal fees over the past year. GSK didn’t disclose why the company had incurred such enormous legal bills.

The recent spate of layouts doesn’t mean that any big pharma companies are in financial trouble. As previously mentioned, most of the layoffs are based on future economic predictions and projections which may or may not be realized. Companies are cutting staff and implementing cost savings measures simply to bolster their stock prices and give investors their expected ROI. The economic downturn has provided pharma companies with excellent cover to downsize at will without anybody asking any tough questions. While I feel the pain of workers who have either lost or soon will lose their jobs, the downsizing taking place over the past three years has been a long time in the making. I suspect that many well paid veteran employees turned a blind eye to the internal changes and cues that may have signaled their ultimate demise. 

While downsizing will likely have its anticipated short term effects i.e. bolster flagging stock share prices, it will ultimately hurt the future economic prospects of most big pharma companies. This is because pharma companies will lose many of the talented and experienced workers whose previous hard work and sacrifices contributed to their past successes.  When are the overpaid pharma executives going to realize that it is the rank and file, not them that bring creativity, innovation and ultimately financial rewards to their stakeholders?

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!

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Despite the announcement late last week in the London Sunday Times that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will eliminate 4000 jobs worldwide, company official are refusing to disclose the number of worker who will lose their jobs in the US. Cuts are expected throughout the US including GSK’s R&D facilities in the Philadelphia, PA area and at its US headquarters in Research Triangle Park, NC which employs roughly 5,000 people.

GSK officials typically refuse to share detailed information on how layoffs affect its Triangle work force. Nearly a year ago, the company cut an undisclosed number of workers at a customer response center in RTP. GSK announced a first cost-cutting initiative in October 2007, eliminating thousands of jobs worldwide, and then it expanded that effort in February 2009 with many hundreds losing jobs at it North Carolina facilities in RTP and nearby Zebulon.

This coming Thursday is expected to be pink slip day at GSK.

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (forget RTP)!!!!!!!

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GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Britain’s largest pharmaceutical company today announced it plans on slashing 4,000 jobs over the coming months. The bulk of the cuts will be in America and Europe, and are part of the company’s efforts to shift resources away from low-growth territories into parts of the world with greater scope to expand sales, most notably Asia. GSK’s currently employs 99,000 workers worldwide. The reduction in headcount will be combined with a drive to make the company’s research and development more cost-efficient. 

While the job losses will not be as severe as those announced last week by its rival Astra Zeneca, they will provide further depressing news for a sector that is fighting to contain costs as it reduces its reliance on big-selling blockbuster drugs, many of whose patents will expire in the next two to three years.

The pipeline of new drugs at GSK is much deeper than at many of its rivals, say industry analysts. The company’s roster of planned launches includes Menhibrix, a vaccine to combat meningitis, and Benlysta (belimumab), a novel, monoclonal antibody treatment for systemic lupus erythematosus that it is co-developing with Maryland-based, Human Genome Sciences. In total, the group has more than 30 products in the advanced stages of development and testing.

While GSK continues to develop new drugs, it has increasingly been turning to emerging markets to find and sustain corporate growth. This has meant that thousands of jobs have already been sacrificed in the West, although the company is adding staff elsewhere. For example, it recently cut 2,000 sales jobs in America but added 1,500 staff in China. Also, GSK’s vaccine division has suffered a few regulatory setbacks with its pneumococcal vaccine Synflorix and its cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix. The loss of market share in these areas has put additional financial pressure on the company.

Like many of its competitors, GSK is looking to other divisions of the company to cover projected losses in the pharmaceutical sector. Recently, GSK has shifted a lot of its attention to its consumer products division, which owns brands such as Lucozade and Ribena soft drinks, Aquafresh and Sensodyne toothpaste, and over-the-counter medicines such as Panadol painkillers and Alli, a weight-loss pill. Analysts predict the division will have raised its annual sales 18% to £4.7 billion. A deal signed last year to increase sales of Lucozade in China has provided the blueprint for how the company would like to develop the consumer healthcare side of its business.

Similarly, last week, Sanofi-Aventis, a French rival, announced a joint venture with Minsheng Pharmaceutical Group, a Chinese company, to sell vitamin pills and nutritional supplements. Also, Pfizer recently announced it would bid for the possibility of purchasing the financially-troubled German generics manufacturer Ratiopharm; signaling the possibility that the world's largest branded pharmaceutical manager may be toying with the idea of getting into the generics business.

Late last year I predicted that more pharmaceutical company employees would loss their jobs. Sadly, this prediction has come true. That said, I am surprised at the scope and size of the layoffs that have already taken place in 2010. I suspect that more layoffs are likely in the near future if the economy doesn’t turn around anytime soon.

Hat tip to Ed at the Pharmalot blog!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (try medical devices or biotech)!!!!!!!!

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Just when you thought that holding on to a job couldn’t get any worse, Pfizer formally announced yesterday that it would be eliminating 680 jobs from a combined workforce of 4,500 at two former Wyeth facilities in Pennsylvania. According to a company spokesperson, 450 of the layoffs would come from Collegeville and 230 from Great Valley. They will take effect March 12. Persons affected by the layoffs will each qualify for a separation package that will include severance payments, continued medical benefits, and help finding a new job via outplacement services.

While some layoffs were expected, they were much greater than some state legislators were led to believe in earlier discussions with Pfizer. And this isn’t likely to be the end of corporate reorganization at Pfizer PA-based facilities. This is because Pfizer is shutting down the Great Valley facility. There is speculation that after this round of layoffs that the 670 remaining Great Valley employees will be transferred to the Collegeville site or other Pfizer locations. And, it is likely that more Pfizer employees will lose their jobs because Pfizer previously announced that it intended to eliminate as many as 15% or 20,000 jobs after its $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth.

Over the past several months, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline have announced more than 40,000 job cuts which have devastated the pharmaceutical workforces in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. 

Until next time...

Good Luck and hmmmmmm...are there any pharmaceutical jobs left to hunt for?

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In a previous blog post, I suggested that there was much speculation about whether or not there would be substantial job losses at the various Wyeth sites throughout Pennsylvania after the Wyeth-Pfizer merger closes. As you may recall, company representatives were assuring Pennsylvania legislators that major job cuts and site closure weren’t likely. 

Yesterday, Bernard Poussot, president of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, sent a message telling employees the company’s Collegeville Headquarters, which employs about 4,000 people, would remain open after the deal closes on October 15, 2009. The fate of employees at other Pennsylvania-based Wyeth facilities remains uncertain.

While this may be good news for some employees at the Collegeville site, it is likely that a substantial number of jobs will be shed after the deal closes. Previously, Pfizer suggested that the combined company intends to shed about 20,000 jobs. I guess the good news is that all 4000 Wyeth employees won’t be losing their jobs!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!

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Reuters reports that French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis (S-A) beat analysts second-quarter earning forecasts and that next year’s earnings will likely benefit from increased demand for its new H1NI swine flu vaccine. The company is the largest flu vaccine manufacturer in the world. Yet, despite surging profits, S-A continues to restructure and cut jobs in an effort maintain its stock share price. —and an “impeccable source”— that US managers are in France discussing cuts to American operations. The cuts are expected to be announced during the first week of August. More bad news for the US economy and  tens of thousands of American pharmaceutical employees who have already lost their jobs.

Until next time

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting????????

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As expected, Merck announced today that it would eliminate an additional 16,000 job after the merger with Schering Plough is completed. The combined company is trying to get its headcount down to around 90,000 employees. The new job cuts represent a 15% reduction in the workforce of the combined company.

While the merger may have made business sense, it doesn’t bode well for future employment for life scientists in New Jersey.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (are there any left?)

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In the wake of last week’s Pfizer-Wyeth M&A feeding frenzy, I suspect that most analysts were hoping that this week would be a little quieter. Unfortunately for many pharmaceutical company employees, this week may be shaping up to be almost as nerve-wracking as last week!and declared that it was on the hunt for a merger or acquisition partner. A ll of the usual suspects have been cited as possibilities. They include: Bristol Myers Squibb (Plavix, Erbitux, Orencia Abilify) , Amgen (EPO, Aranesp, Neupogen, Neulasta and Enbrel), Biogen-Idec (Avonex, Tsyabri and Rituxan) (Actavis (generics) Ratiopharm (generics) and Crucell (vaccines). The hands on favorite and most likely target would be Bristol Myers Squibb because the two companies co-market Plavix, their top selling drug that is due to lose patent protection in the next year or so. That said, in this environment anything can happen. 

In other news, GlaxoSmithKline announced that it will be cutting 6,000 jobs later this week when the company puts out financial results. The company began reorganizing itself in 2007 and will continue to do over the next few years to deal with generic encroachment on several of its top selling drugs. Glaxo employs about 100,000 people worldwide. Analysts suspect that many of the job cuts will occur in the UK and that sales rep may be hit the hardest in this latest round of layoffs.

Until next time…

 Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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Talk about a rough week. First, on Monday, Pfizer announced that it was acquiring Wyeth, a move that is expected to result in the loss of 8,000 to 10,000 jobs if the deal is approved. This was followed on Wednesday by an announcement from Abbott Laboratories indicating hat it was laying off about 200 sales representatives because of regulatory delays for its12 hour-formulation of its pain drug Vicodin. Finally, on Thursday, AstraZeneca announced that it will cut another 7,400 jobs worldwide by 2013 (bringing the total number of expected layoffs to 15,000). Also on Thursday, Sepracor, the maker of the sleeping pill Lunesta, announced that it will cut 20% of its permanent work force (530 jobs) and 410 contract sales representatives (even though the company announced a profit).

Suffice it to say it has been a tough week for pharmaceutical company employees. I hope that next week is better.

Until next time…

Good Luck and errrrrr Good Job Hunting????????

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While the domino theory was incorrect when it came to the spread of communism during the Cold War, there may be a kernel of truth to it when it is applied to today’s pharmaceutical industry. On Tuesday, Pfizer announced that it would lay off 800 researchers. Not to be outdone by Pfizer, Roche announced today that it plans to lay off about 780 workers over the next two to three years because of “worsening economic conditions.”

After spending the last decade or so associated with the pharmaceutical industry, one thing that I have learned is that there isn’t a single company that I can think of that wants to be the first to do anything. However, when a pharma company makes a bold move, the others are very quick to follow because they “don’t want to be perceived as not being “cutting edge” or keeping pace with their competitors. To that end, the domino theory may warrant some further investigation when it comes to day-to-day operations of big pharma.

Until next time,

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!! 

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Pfizer may announce new job cuts by the end of next month as the company tries to curb spending before cheaper generic versions of its top- selling drug Lipitor flood the market in 2010. The cuts will likely take place in sales and marketing—Pfizer has cut more than 14, 000 jobs since 2007. 

Aren’t you glad that you didn’t take me up on that land deal in Florida?

Until next time…

Good Luck and Hang On!!!!!!!!!!!

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Astra Zeneca announced today that it would cut 1400 jobs and close several manufacturing facilities worldwide. According to a post on the Pharmalot blog “about 600 full-time jobs will be lost in Sweden as packaging operations are expanded in Wuxi, China. The cuts will come on top of the 7,600 positions the drugmaker plans to eliminate by 2010. The plant closings will occur in Spain, Belgium and Sweden by 2013. Manufacturing jobs will also be trimmed in Sweden and the UK as production is shifted to lower-cost countries in emerging markets.”

On Tuesday Wyeth disclosed that it was eliminating 70 positions at its Pearl River, New York, facility (which employs 3,200 workers, 118 employees at its Rouses Point facility in upstate New York that employs 725 people work, and 124 jobs at its Sanford, North Carolina manufacturing facility. Ironically, as more and more US workers are laid off, many big pharma companies like Merck, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline are expanding operations at their research facilities in India. In fact, Merck is doubling its headcount from 800 to 1,600 employees at its research facility in India that was opened a little over a year ago.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Keep on Looking!!!!

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Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) made a presentation this morning at the Credit Suisse Healthcare Conference that showed the company plans on saving an additional $2.5 billion in “productivity initiatives.” According to its new CFO, the company plans to squeeze the savings out of “headcount and related costs” — which  likely means more downsizing and layoffs.  Rumors have it that these job cuts will take place by December 1, 2008 just prior to when employee bonuses are traditionally decided.

To make matters worse, the Pharmalot blog reported today  that "the drugmaker earlier this week sent a voicemail to employees saying a 2 percent cost of living increase will be given this year to those who are meeting or exceeding performance standards."  The announcement has lead to speculation among BMS employees whether or not the same ceiling will be applied to the bonuses and stock rewards handed to Bristol-Myers CEO Jim Cornelius and members of his executive team.

Heavy losses incurred  by its former CFO who "bet the store" on mortgage-backed securities coupled with the recent, highly publicized failure of Jim Cornelius to purchase ImClone (to gain complete control over the multi-billion dollar Erbitux franchise) suggests that the future of the company may be in serious jeopardy.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!

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According to the WSJ Health Blog “Wyeth is overhauling its early-stage research by slashing in half the number of therapeutic areas and diseases for which it will pursue new medicines. The idea is to concentrate on more innovative products and get them to market faster.” Whenever large companies restructure or announce reorganization plans, job cuts are soon to follow. So, if you are a Wyeth employee I recommend updating that resume as soon as possible!

People close to the R&D restructuring (part of a larger plan, dubbed Project Impact) said the overall number of scientific jobs won’t change under the plan but some scientists will be cut because their skills aren’t transferable to other areas. Wyeth will eliminate discovery work in women’ health, reduce its therapeutic areas from 14 to 6 and continue to focus vaccines and biologics, where it has had great success with its pediatric pneumococcal vaccine, Prevnar, and the anti-inflammatory biologic Enbrel.

Wyeth joins several pharmaceutical companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer, which have already decided to narrow the focus of their development efforts and focus more on biotechnology products. Don’t be surprise if other pharmaceutical companies announce similar restructuring plans. I predict that within 10 years or so, pharma companies will no conduct basic discovery research and abandon their internal pipelines. Instead, they will become drug “clearing houses” that specialize in developing products that were either purchased or in-licensed from smaller biotechnology and specialty pharmaceutical companies.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!

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Pfizer announced earlier today that it was going to cut R&D jobs and abandon its research efforts in the areas of cardiovascular diseases, cholesterol management, osteoporosis, anemia and liver and muscle diseases. The company plans to refocus it drug development in five therapeutic areas including Alzheimer’s; diabetes; immune disorders and inflammation; cancer; pain; and mental illness, including schizophrenia. Also, the company will continue its work on anti-thrombotic agents to prevent blood clots.

The job cuts and refocusing are part of a previously announced plan to cut about $2 billion dollars from Pfizer’s operating budget. Over the past 15 years, Pfizer has gone on an unprecedented buying spree in an attempt to acquire blockbuster drugs and bolster its flagging internal drug development pipeline. Unfortunately, the gamble has not paid off and Pfizer must now attempt to reinvent itself to restore shareholder value and instill investor confidence. 

Unlike many of its competitors, Pfizer failed to invest in and capitalize on early opportunities in the biotechnology industry. The company has been trying to play catch up ever since. To that end, over the past year or so, Pfizer invested in or purchased several small biopharmaceutical companies to demonstrate its commitment to biotechnology.  It may be “too little too late!” Unfortunately, because of a lack of vision and foresight by company executives, many Pfizer employees will have to pay the ultimate price of losing their jobs as the US falls deeper into recession.

Hat tip to Pharmalot and the WSJ Health Blog.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!

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Astellas, a company formed in 2005 following the merger of Japanese-based pharmaceutical giants, Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd, announced that it is hoping that 200 pharmaceutical workers in its production facility in Norman, OK will take early retirement to cut labor costs. The downsizing is in response to impending patent expiry of the company’s blockbuster urology product Flomax.

A company spokesperson said “The early retirement program seeks to reduce the workforce by about 30 percent, which would leave about 140 people at the Norman plant.” The loss of these jobs is likely to have a substantial economic impact on the small Oklahoma town many of whose residents have worked at the plant for over 20 years.

Astellas employees around 17,000 workers worldwide. When pharmaceutical jobs are cut in OK, you know the industry is in bad shape.

Hat tip to Ed at Pharmalot

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!

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Ed Silverman at the Pharmalot blog reported that Abbott disclosed in a Securities and Exchange filing that it will cut about 1,000 jobs in medical diagnostics over the next four years to cut costs and save about $150 million per year.

According to an Abbot spokesperson “The streamlining includes the closing of a clinical chemistry plant in South Pasadena, California and transferring production of some diagnostic products to plants in Europe that are closer to a big part of the company’s customer base.”

I guess this is good news for Abbott employees—the company could have eliminated all 1,000 positions in one fell swoop. The four year timeline gives current Abbott employees some time to beef up their resumes.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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 As expected, Genentech summarily rejected Roche’s offer to purchase it for $43.7 billion. Genentech executives claim that Roche’s offer is too low and it undervalues the actual worth of the company. Roche offered Genentech about $88 per share for remaining 44% of the outstanding shares of stock that it doesn’t already own. Many Wall Street analysts think that the actual value of Genentech stock is roughly $100 per share. As any business person knows (with or without an MBA), the first offer is usually not the last offered that is tendered in any deal.

Because Roche owns a majority controlling interest in Genentech, it is not clear whether Genentech can avoid actually being purchased by Roche. Genentech executives have publicly stated that earlier agreements between the two companies that guide the sale of Genentech may no longer be in effect and that they will not abide by them.  I suspect that only time (or perhaps the courts) will tell.

Roche has already indicated that if it acquires Genentech, there will likely be job cuts to its 10,700 member workforce (something that Genentech wants to prevent). I suspect that Genentech’s rejection of Roche’s offer is the first in a series designed to maximize shareholder value for Genentech (not to mention the large sums of money that company workers and executives who own stock options will make as a result of a sale).

I predict that Roche will ultimately buy Genentech. The only thing that remains to be determined is how much Roche will have to pay to acquire the biotech giant. Roche cannot afford to let this deal go south—a bright and successful future depends on it!

If I were a Genentech employee, I would be dusting off the old resume right about now.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!

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Pfizer announced today that is it closing a manufacturing facility in Cork Ireland.  Approximately 180 people will lose their jobs. Pfizer tried to sell the plant but was unable to find a buyer. The Cork plant will officially be closed sometime in 2009.  Another of Pfizer’s five Irish manufacturing facilities located in Ringaskiddy is also on the block. That facility employs about 300 people. Pfizer cites the 2006 failure of torcetrapib, an experimental cholesterol drug as the reason for the plant closings.

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Despite an increase in profits, BMS announced today that it will continue with its Productivity Transformation Initiative (PTI) that was instituted last fall. According to the PTI, BMS must save $1.0 billion over the next 2 years. Of course, the only way to accomplish this is by laying off employees whose jobs are not directly related to the process of transforming BMS into a “ next generation biopharma company” (Would somebody please write me and explain what that means)???? I suspect that BMS employees will be receiving “pink slips” after Labor Day.

This has been a devastating week for the NJ-based pharmaceutical industry. First, Teva announced last week that it will buy Montvale NJ-based Barr Pharmaceuticals and then earlier this week Roche issued a press release indicating that it will move its corporate headquarters from Nutley NJ to South San Francisco (Genentech’s headquarters) by 2010. The impending layoffs at BMS coupled with job freezes and downsizing at other NJ pharma companies like Schering Plough and Merck may signal the beginning of the end of New Jersey’s status as the “nation’s medicine chest.”

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (forget New Jersey)!

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Pfizer is at it again. The company announced today that it will cut 275 jobs from its manufacturing operations in Kalamazoo County before the end of the year. The cut will reduce the company’s total employee roster to about 2,500 at the Portage, MI site.

Pfizer has been steadily streamlining and downsizing operations in Michigan ever since it inherited several Michigan-based sites after it acquired Pharmacia in 2002.

Not surprisingly, a company spokesman said “We operate in a highly competitive and constantly changing environment, and we have to adapt to that.'' Easy for him to say—he still has a job. 

The announcement comes on the heels of a rumor circulating last week that some Pfizer employees at its Croton R&D facility may lose their jobs next fall.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (avoid Michigan)!!!!!!!!!!

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According to apost at Pharmalot, rumor has it that Pfizer will lay off a number of chemists at its main R&D facility in Groton, Connecticut as early as next Fall The rumor supposedly began at an R&D blog run by a former Pfizer employee (always a reliable source for inside information). 

M y colleague Ed Silverman who runs Pharmalot contacted Pfizer about the rumor and received this response “A leading R&D organization must evolve, continue to build on its strengths, capture competitive advantage wherever possible and be realistic about what it will take to return Pfizer to growth. What I can assure you is that if and when there are organizational changes, those decisions are never taken lightly. Our guiding principle is that colleagues hear about important Pfizer news from company leadership first and are treated with the utmost respect.” In other words, Pfizer will likely be laying off more employees in the very near future.

Hat tip to Ed!

Until next time…

Good Luck, Good Job Hunting and Happy 4^th of July!!!!!

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The Avandia debacle is still ravaging the employee ranks at GlaxoSmithKline especially at its Research Triangle Park, North Carolina and in Philadelphia locations. According to a post at Pharmalot, the UK-based drug manufacturer is cutting as many as 350 jobs (2.0% of its workforce) at both locations. This represents an almost 40% reduction in drug discovery and development activities that take place at both sites.

These cuts come after GSK closed a factory and drastically cut its sales force late last year. To make matters worse (particularly for those folks who lost their jobs) GSK purchased an early-stage drug discovery company called Sirtris Pharmaceuticals for about $720 million earlier this year. Clearly, company executives have more faith in external rather than internal drug discovery at GSK.

The saga continues……

Until next time

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (forget North Carolina)!!!!!

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Eli Lilly & Co. announced today that it will eliminate 500 jobs at its manufacturing facility in Indianapolis, IN. The cuts will affect sites that manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients for Lilly’s insulin products Humalog® and Humulin® and its osteoporosis medicine Forteo®.

Lilly is offering incentive packages for those employees who voluntarily leave the company. The company has already reduced its global headcount by twelve percent or about 5,500 people since 2004.

Times are tough and getting tougher each day in pharma land. Buckle up–its going to be a rough ride for jobseekers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (avoid Indianapolis, who wants to be a Hoosier anyway?)

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According to a post on the Wall Street Journal Health blog, Wyeth announced today that it is laying off about 1,200 marketing and sales representatives who helped support Protonix, its blockbuster heartburn and acid reflux medication. The job cuts are part of a previously announced “asset reallocation plan” that is designed to reduce the size of the company’s workforce by about 5% this year, and by 10% over the next three years.

The company employees about 50,000 people worldwide with roughly half of them in the U.S.  Like some of its competitors, Wyeth is facing stiff generic competition for several products that are slated to lose patent protection over the next couple of years and recently has had trouble getting many of its new drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!!!

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Germany’s GPC Biotech announced another round of job cuts as it tries to regroup after its failure to win US approval of its experimental prostate cancer drug satraplatin.

The company said that this latest restructuring will sharpen its focus on oncology clinical development efforts and further reduce costs to extend its cash reserves to cover three years of operating expenses. The restructuring is mainly focused on GPC’s early-stage research activities in Munich and will result in 38 job losses. The remaining work force will be 14 in Munich and 49 in Princeton, New Jersey. These latest cuts come after an announcement in November that the firm was slashing its workforce by over 100.

A GPC Biotech spokesperson also announced that the company is discontinuing internal development of the 1D09C3 monoclonal antibody, which is in Phase I clinical trials for relapsed/refractory B-cell lymphomas. However, RGB-286638, a broad-spectrum cell cycle kinase inhibitor, is expected to enter the clinic within the next six months. 

Things are looking pretty dicey at GPC Biotech.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!

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Allergan Inc., the maker of Botox, will close a plant in Ireland, eliminating 300 jobs, and transfer production to a factory in Costa Rica.

Ireland has lost about 10 percent of its manufacturing jobs over the last six years, as labor costs climb. As many of you may know, many US pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies set up production facilities in Ireland over the past 10 years or so because of its well trained workforce and lower labor costs.  However, because the Irish economy has grown so quickly and its middle has prospered, labor costs have been rising and manufacturers are now looking elsewhere to control costs. Unfortunately, this is likely to be harbinger of things to come for markets that were once sources of cheap, skilled labor.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting Lasses and Laddies!!!!!!!!

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 that 660 jobs will be lost at a Pfizer manufacturing facility in Terre Haute, Ind., a result of Pfizer Inc.'s decision to stop production of its inhaled insulin product Exubera.

Nat Ricciardi, president of Pfizer Global Manufacturing, announced Pfizer's decision to cut staff in Terra Haute because the company did not have another use for the specialized Indiana-based production facility.

Facility workers were told of the decision on Monday morning and that told layoffs would begin in March. The production facility employs about 800 workers in total and a majority of the affected employees are those hired within the last five years to produce Exubera. The remaining 140 workers will support the company's sterile manufacturing operation that included antibiotic production.

When the company announced plans in October to discontinue Exubera, it also said about 60 jobs would be lost at its manufacturing plant in Portage, Ind. They are among a total off 200 jobs the company has said will be cut here before the end of this year.

A Pfizer spokesperson said the company is "committed to providing whatever assistance our colleagues need, including internal job postings, job search tools, career and retirement counseling and severance benefits for those who leave the company." It appears that the Midwest is starting to feel pain associated with contraction of the pharmaceutical industry.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (forget the Midwest)!!!!!!!!!!

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Well, it had to happen sooner or later.  Wyeth said on Friday it is considering cost cuts that could eliminate 10 percent of its work force over a three-year period.

Wyeth, whose earnings prospects have been hurt by delays last year in approvals of new medicines and the recent launch of a generic form of its blockbuster Protonix ulcer medicine, currently has 50,000 employees worldwide.

A company spokesperson said "It is premature to even begin to discuss which positions will be affected or how (job cuts) will be achieved. We are evaluating our business and trying to find ways to be more efficient, and part of that is to keep costs under control". He noted that details of the initiative will be presented to employees toward the end of March.

Stay tuned for more details!!!!!!

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (avoid Collegeville, PA)!!!!!!!!!

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Bristol-Myers Squibb announced today that it will close a 37-year-old pill manufacturing plant in the city of Barceloneta in Puerto Rico. The company plans to shut down operations at the facility over the next 12 months, eliminating about 225 jobs. The reasons for the closing were slowing demand for drugs manufactured at the facility, including two AIDS treatments and an antibiotic and a general need to cut corporate manufacturing costs. As you may recall, Bristol-Myers recently announced a restructuring to eliminate 4,300 jobs and save $1.5 billion.

This is the second time in the past few months that Bristol-Myers has announced plans to close a Puerto Rican production plant.  Last October, BMS announced that it intended to close a manufacturing facility in Mayaguez that made Pravachol (cholesterol-lowering), the Abilify (schizophrenia) and Glucophage (diabetes) that cost 400 employees their jobs. Not to worry–the company said it will continue to operate two other plants in the Puerto Rican cities of Humacao and Manati. About 3,000 high-paying pharmaceutical manufacturing jobs have been lost in Puerto Rico over the past year–given this growing trend, I think that the Puerto Rican government ought to begin to worry about its economic future.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (try China, India and Singapore)

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Ed Silverman at Pharmalot alerted me to this tidbit. Daniel Vasella, CEO of the Swiss drug maker Novartis AG, mentioned in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that he is planning a companywide restructuring aimed at reducing “layers of management and bureaucracy—following through on reorganization comments he made several months ago.

Novartis, plans to disclose more about its restructuring plans by mid-month and elaborate further in February, adding that the restructuring will involve some job cuts, but Vasella declined to say how many. In an October briefing for analysts, Novartis executives said there would be 240 jobs cut in US headquarter functions Hanover, NJ) and 510 sales reps and 510 contracted rep positions eliminated, for savings of $230 million.

Novartis is one of several big drugmakers to cutback - AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glaxo and Johnson & Johnson have all announced layoffs in the past year. And Merck and Wyeth continue to trim selectively as part of ongoing savings programs.

According to the Journal, the changes at Novartis will follow recent management changes and comes after a tough year for Novartis. The drugmaker, faced generic competition on some of its

biggest drugs and failed to gain FDA approval for two new products–including the anti-diabetes drug Galvus (vildagliptin) which was predicted to be a blockbuster. Earlier this year, it also was forced to withdraw from the US and Swiss markets its drug for irritable-bowel syndrome, Zelnorm, after safety concerns.

One new rule Vasella has set: There should be no more than six layers of employees in any Novartis division, from the lowest-ranking person up to the division head. Novartis has four divisions: pharmaceuticals, generics (Sandoz), vaccines and diagnostics, and consumer health, which includes over-the-counter medicines.

Vasella says he realized the pharma division, in particular, was bogged down with bureaucracy after he had recent lunch with a group of its employees. The reorganization will also cut costs from Novartis’s procurement activities. One area that will come under particular scrutiny: the use of third-party CROs to oversee Novartis’s clinical trials which has been extremely costly for the Company.

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (China and India?)!!!!!!

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Johnson & Johnson announced

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Ed Silverman who runs the  Pharmalot blog reported that Novartis is slated to cut about 1,200 jobs to save the company about $230 million a year.  According to the post at Pharmalot, Novartis will let 240 employees go at its US- based headquartersin Hanover, New Jersey and eliminate over 1,000 full time and contract sales representatives from its workforce.  Also reported was that Novartis is planning to create a biologics division within the company.  I find this extremely interesting because Novartis already has a strong footprint in the biologics biz  via its wholly-owned subsidiary Sandoz, which is one of the market leaders in the follow-on biologics aka biosimilar sector.

I guess having a biologics division is de rigueur these days if you are a big pharma company.  I am still wondering why it took so long for all of these high paid pharmaceutical executives to figure out that biotechnology was the next  big thing?  You would think that after 30 years, they would get the hint.  But then gain these are some of the same people who brought us Vioxx, Avandia, Exubera and ...go ahead ....pick your favorite.

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

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Monster Worldwide, the company that runs the largest job board site Monster.com, quietly announced three weeks ago that is was laying off about 800 workers or approximately 15% of its workforce.

Monster Worldwide Inc. said mounting legal expenses associated with defending a growing U.S. government probe of its stock options grants practices were the reason for the job cuts.

The layoffs will mostly be in non-sales jobs in North America, Monster said.

The company also plans to streamline functions such as human resources and finance, Monster said.

It is not a harbinger of good things to come when the largest site on the web dedicated to helping individuals find employment downsizes its workforce to cut costs!

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting

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