Pfizer/Wyeth Layoff Update
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After announcing yesterday that it will be reorganizing and closing 6 of 20 R&D sites worldwide, Pfizer/Wyeth announced today that as many as 2000 R&D scientists will lose their jobs. I suspect that others will lose their jobs in the next few months or so.
The Pfizer/Wyeth and Merck Schering Plough mergers signal the beginning of the end of the traditional vertically integrated pharmaceutical business model. It is evident that pharma is shifting away from its almost 100 year focus on R&D and manufacturing to less labor intensive and costly activities like advertising, marketing, sales and distribution—things that drug makers have excelled in the past decade or so. Innovation will likely no longer come from within but from external sources including academia, biotechnology companies and third party vendors including CROs and CMOs.
While the loss of thousands of R&D scientists will have little impact on the productivity and operations of life sciences companies themselves, it has serious implications for academic institutions that train life sciences graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. In the past, PhD scientists who were unable to find academic jobs too refuge and found gainful employment in the life sciences industry. However, American industrial R&D jobs are becoming harder and harder to find as larger companies continue to outsource those activities, to Asia, South America and Eastern Europe. And, the competition for the remaining jobs is becoming increasingly fierce. Put simply, academic institutions have to begin to realize that we no longer need as many PhD-trained life scientists as we have in the past. At present, there is a glut of PhD life scientists in the US, many of whom can’t find jobs. Perhaps, this should be taken into account before graduate school admissions committees determine the number of new graduate students they will admit next year.
Until next time...
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!!!
Employees of Pfizer/Wyeth were notified earlier today of impending changes and consolidation that will be taking place at the newly combined company. According to internal sources, Cambridge, MA, Groton, CT and Pearl River, NY will be the main centers of the combined company’s East Coast operations and San Francisco and La Jolla/San Diego CA will represent West Coast operations. In Europe, the research facility in Sandwich, England will be the main R&D center with a network of smaller sites, in locations such as Montreal, Ottawa, Cambridge UK, Aberdeen UK, and Dusseldorf, Germany providing expertise in vaccine production and biomanufacturing. The company’s China R&D Center in Shanghai will remain the focal point of operations in Asia,
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it would eliminate as many as 8,200 jobs, or 7% of its work force, to help the company cope with what it expects will be a slow economic recovery amid damped demand for drugs, medical devices and consumer products. J&J employs about 117, 000 workers globally. While the job cuts will be global, many losing their jobs will be outside of the US. 
I received a call today from GDS International, a UK-based b2b publishing company, alerting me to its annual, event called the .jpg)
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The fourth quarter is over, earnings are being announced and new budgets for the upcoming fiscal year are being evaluated and tweaked. This means that we have officially entered layoff and closure season. Isn’t it great that big companies wait until right before the holiday season to let employees know whether or not they will have a job next year?.jpg)
In a previous
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported today that Pennsylvania state legislators, spearheading efforts to retain jobs in the state after the $68 billion Pfizer-Wyeth merger closes next month, said they were fairly confident many positions would remain at Wyeth's regional operations in Collegeville, Great Valley and other sites. Wyeth employs about 4,500 people in the region - about 3,600 in Collegeville and 900 in Great Valley and elsewhere.
The Belgian chemical manufacturer Solvay 
Sepracor shareholders may be able to sleep better at night without the aid of the company’s top selling insomnia drug Lunesta after agreeing to be purchased on Thursday by Dainippon Sunmitomo Pharma of Japan. Dainippon will pay $2.6 billion for the rights to Lunesta and other drugs in Sepracor’s pipeline. .gif)
Eli Lilly & Co. is 
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) announced late yesterday that it intends to purchase Princeton, NJ-based Medarex for $2.1 billion. BMS and Medarex were working collaboratively to develop a monoclonal antibody called 
The drug maker Eli Lilly and Co 
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..jpeg)
After months of complaints by university officials and scientific organizations, the US State Department .gif)
Over the past three years, more than
Medtronics, the world's largest medical-device company, 
As the recession slogs on, it is likely that many more people will lose their jobs and you might find yourself in the unenviable position of having to commiserate or console a friend or colleague was layed off. Not surprisingly, this is often a difficult and delicate situation that requires some sensitivity and tact. 
Since 2007, approximately 80,000 pharmaceutical jobs have been eliminated. The recent consolidation in the industry, e.g., Merck-Schering, Pfizer-Wyeth and Roche-Genentech suggests that many more life sciences jobs will be lost over the next year or so. Typically, to avoid law suits and possible discrimination claims, most companies will layoff a mixture of experienced and entry level employees that cover the racial, religious and age spectra. For those of you who may not know, Americans who are 40 and older constitute a “protected class of employees.” In other words, companies that layoff employees cannot disproportionately give pink slips to employees 40 years of age or older. This law was enacted because older employees typically have higher salaries and have accrued more benefits and vacation time than their more junior counterparts and eliminating them can drastically cut costs. While most companies are careful to layoff a mixture of junior and senior employees during large layoffs, a quick perusal of the demographics of employees who lose their jobs reveals that many of them are older, more experienced workers. Sacrificing a few entry level employees (to prevent any red flags) is worth it to the accountants who charged with cutting costs and orchestrating large corporate layoffs.
Late Thursday, after 8 months of difficult and often acrimonious negotiations, Genentech’s board finally caved and agreed to allow Roche to purchase the remaining 44% of the outstanding Genentech shares that it doesn’t already own. The price: $95 per share—less than the $112 per share that Genentech’s board and management team wanted —but better than the $86.50 per share that was tendered last fall..gif)
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!.jpg)
I received an e-message from a reader who alerted me about new information and rumors that are swirling about the layoffs announced yesterday by Pfizer. For more info, check out the 
Long rumored, 
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Making a profit (and a large one at that) is the primary objective and driving principle of capitalism. That said, the for-profit sector is currently in a shambles—mostly due to greed and stupidity of the so-called stewards of the American economy. Maybe it is time for many of us to abandon corporate greed in favor of job opportunities in the more philanthropic and altruistic not-for-profit sector. I was surprised to learn that, despite the current economic downturn, there are growing numbers of jobs at non-for-profit hospitals, clinics, civic organizations and education (pre-school, primary and secondary)..jpg)
For those of you who haven’t been able to keep up with the latest pharma layoffs, I came across an .jpg)
In a 
Pfizer announced today that it will .jpg)
I know this is kind of odd, but I have recently begun to wonder which life sciences companies have layed off the most employees this past year. Well, for those of you out there who were also wondering we don't have to wonder any longer because Ed Silverman over at the Pharmalot blog has conveniently compiled a 
Pfizer may announce 
The Pharmalot blog reported today that .jpg)
Recently, I have come across posts on blogs and websites reporting on lay offs and cost-cutting measures that are taking place at some biotechnology companies. A good example of this is a post that appeared yesterday on the Fierce Biotech Web Site. The headline read: 
According to a 
Astra Zeneca announced today that it would cut 1400 jobs and close several manufacturing facilities worldwide. .jpg)
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..gif)
Last month, 240,000 American workers lost their jobs. Many of these jobs were lost as a result of corporate lay offs and restructuring—things that are likely to continue as we attempt to navigate a course through these financially troubling times. Unlike being fired, lay offs and job losses that result from restructuring have little to do with individual job performances and everything to do with budget constraints and reductions. That said how should a person who is laid off from a job deal with it on a resume when looking for a new job? I found a .jpg)
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!
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manufacturing facility in Cork Ireland. Approximately 180 people will lose their jobs. 
Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co 
Despite an increase in profits, 
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The 
t layoff at the medical devices manufacturer in over 5 years. According to a press release, slightly over a third of the layoffs will come from the company’s local operations, which has about 8,000 employees. The overall effect of the reorganization will be relatively small—affecting roughly 3% of the company’s worldwide workforce of 39, 500..jpg)
As I mentioned in previous posts, things are simply not going Merck’s way. Merck has been .jpg)
Eli Lilly & Co. 
I happened upon a Sunday morning talk show yesterday where one of the guests was discussing strategies that employees ought to adopt to keep their jobs in a recessionary economy. For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, the US economy lost 63,000 jobs last month; another bit of evidence that we are sliding into an unavoidable recession. 
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According to posts by my colleague Ed Silverman over at .jpg)
Silverman who runs the 
Monster Worldwide, the company that runs the largest job board site 
