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Thing have been quiet in the pharma layoff space during 2012. I guess that is not so surprising since we are only one month into 2012. However, there was a post on yesterday’s Pharmalot blog which indicates pharma layoffs may resume in earnest over the next few weeks. 

According to the post, AstraZeneca (AZ) is poised to shed thousands of more jobs after the company announces it earnings later this week. As you may recall, AZ recently announced that it would lay off 400 employees at its US headquarters and eliminate another 1,150 jobs from its US sales force. Like other pharmaceutical companies, things have been tough for AZ as three of its blockbuster products Crestor (cholesterol lowering), Nexium (acid reflux) and Seroquel (antipsychotic) lose patent protection and face stiff generic competition.

The Pharmalot post also reported that:

“Between 2007 and 2009, AstraZeneca eliminated 12,600 positions, a move that saved $1.6 billion annually, although that figure rose to $2.4 billion by 2010. The cuts announced that year were designed to save $1.9 billion annually by 2014 It is not clear how much the drug maker hopes to save with still more cuts, but some $3 billion may be spent on a stock buyback to bolster shareholder confidence.”

It is important to note that the massive downsizing that has taken place in the pharma industry over the past decade has little to do with the recession and everything to do with the loss of blockbuster revenues due to generic encroachment. Put simply, most pharma companies grew too large too quickly and subsequently realized that could not sustain their vast infrastructures if the loss of blockbuster sales revenues could not be replaced by new products. To wit, if you look at the P&L statements of many pharmaceutical companies, most have $5 billon to $30 billion of readily-available cash reserves on hand to “play” with. Sadly, the downsizing that has taken place had little to do with the present and everything to do about the future profitability of big pharma companies.

Until next time...

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

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Earlier this week, I suggested in a post that pharma layoffs were beginning to decline whereas biotech layoffs were rising. And wouldn’t you know it, just when big pharma employees thought that their jobs were safe, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis today announced that it was laying off 2,000 US employees. According to a post on the Pharmalot blog, 1,630 sales reps and an additional 300 positions will be eliminated at Novartis’ Hanover, NJ US headquarters. Last fall, Novartis eliminated 1,100 jobs in Switzerland, 900 R&D and 1,400 sales reps in The US and another 550 jobs at a manufacturing site in the UK 

While the announced layoffs may be part of a global downsizing effort that began last year, many analysts believe Novartis decided to reorganize because its new hypertension drug, Tekturna, performed poorly in clinical trials (increased incidence of non-fatal stroke, renal complications, hyperkalemia and hypotension) to garner approval of the drug to treat patients with Type II diabetes who are a greater risk of cardiovascular and renal events. The company’s best-selling hypertension medicine Diovan lost patent protection in Europe earlier this year and it due to expire in the US next September.

Company executives were betting on Tekturna to replace hypertension sales lost to generic competition for Diovan. Tekturna, approved in Europe as Rasilez, generated sales of $449 million during the first nine months of the past fiscal year but the poor clinical trials results suggest that it may be difficult for the drug to generate the $1.4 billion in annual sales (by 2016) forecasted by many financial analysts.

Stay tuned for more big pharma layoff updates!

Until next time...

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

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While China and India have gotten the most attention as emerging pharmaceutical markets, Latin American markets most notably Mexico and Brazil (okay, it is a South American country but it can be included in Latin America) have been quietly expanding as rapidly as the Indian and Chinese markets. To wit, Denmark-based, Novo Nordisk—the world’s largest insulin maker—recently announced that it will be beefing up its medical consultant (aka sales reps) presence in Latin America over the next two to three years. During this period, the company expects to increase its current headcount of 300 to 800 employees.

Novo currently holds a 50 percent share of the Latin American insulin market. The company currently generates annual sales in Latin America of approximately $360 million. But, its main rivals Sanofi Aventis and Eli Lilly & Co, which sell faster-acting insulins, are beginning to cut into Novo’s market share.  The solution: add more sales reps in the region. While this may be great news for Latin American sales reps, it is not good news for American sales reps. Unless, of course, these reps speak Spanish and are willing to relocate!

Until next time...

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

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One of the new “hot career” opportunities in the life science industry is something called a medical science liaison or MSL. Increasingly, graduate students and postdocs are beginning to mention MSL as a possible career option. Of course, the first thing that I ask these persons is “Do you know what an MSL is or does on a daily basis?” In most cases, most of these would-be MSLs sheepishly admit that they don’t!

With this in mind, I invited Dr. Samuel Dyer an experienced MSL and CEO and Founder of the Medical Science Liaison Corporation and MSL WORLD to better inform those who may be interested in pursuing a career as an MSL.

What is a Medical Science Liaison?

By Samuel Dyer

The MSL is a therapeutic specialist (e.g. Oncology, Cardiology, Infectious Diseases, Central Nervous System) within pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical devices, and clinical research organizations (CRO) who has advanced scientific training and generally a "terminal D" degrees in the life sciences (PhD, PharmD, MD).  It's important to note that MSL's are not sales reps and their function is very different.  The primary purpose of the MSL role is to be scientific or disease state experts for internal colleagues (sales and marketing), but more importantly for doctors in the Therapeutic Area of the Medical community in which they work (i.e. Oncology, Cardiology, CNS etc.).  The focus of the role has changed over the years, but the primary responsibility of the MSL role remains to establish and maintain peer-peer relationships with leading doctors, referred to as Key Opinion Leaders (KOL's).

Medical Science Liaison’s (MSLs) were first established by Upjohn pharmaceuticals in 1967 as a response to the need for professionally-trained field staff that would be able to build rapport with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) in various therapeutic areas of research. Although originally called Medical Science Liaisons by Upjohn, over the years and today, pharmaceutical companies have used various names for the role including: Medical Liaisons, Medical Managers, Regional Scientific Mangers, Clinical Liaisons, and Scientific Affairs Managers among others.  

Originally, the first MSLs were selected from experienced sales representatives that had strong scientific backgrounds to bring a higher degree of clinical and educational expertise to the medical professionals they were working with to influence sales. Over the years, MSL teams have been made up of individuals with various scientific backgrounds including: “super” sales reps, those with nursing backgrounds, those with various doctoral level degrees or other clinical backgrounds.  However, the required educational and scientific background and purpose of MSL’s has progressively changed over the years since they were first established.  In the late 1980’s, a number of companies began to require those applying to MSL roles to hold a terminal “D” degree such as an MD, PharmD, or PhD degrees.  

Although, historically, the educational standard in the industry did not require MSL’s to have a terminal “D” degree, however, today the terminal “D” degree has become standard in the industry.  Today according to one benchmark study more than 90% of current MSLs hold terminal “D” degrees.  

While the MSL role has received some attention, including a CNN Money article entitled "#1 Job in Pharmaceuticals-10 Jobs for Big Demand-Good Pay”, it remains one of the best kept secrets and one of the most difficult roles to break into.  Few people know about it, and little is written about the role.  In fact, the MSL community is quite small when compared to other professions in the pharmaceutical industry however there has been an explosion in the growth of the position. According to a recent benchmark study, there has been an average growth of 76% of the MSL role since 2005 across the industry in the U.S.

To learn more about the MSL role and find free resources go to www.mslworld.com

Until next time...

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

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While R&D scientists and sales representatives continue to struggle to find jobs in the US at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, the competition is fierce to hire and retain pharma employees in emerging markets like China and India. Earlier this week, I posted a piece on big pharma’s continuing expansion of its R&D activities in Asia and the growing need for US-trained PhDs in this region. However, it appears that hiring and retaining pharma sales reps is a bigger problem in China and India for big pharma companies like GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Sanofi-Aventis (SA) and Pfizer.

According to a recent article in Bloomberg News about 20 percent of GSK’s sales forces in both countries quits each year in favor of better offers from its rivals including Pfizer and SA. One GSK executive quipped “There’s a huge war for talent. It’s hard to do anything about. If you have a good person, they could find someone else willing to pay twice as much.” This is in marked contrast with the US where almost 100,000 pharma sales reps may have lost jobs over the past five years.

Emerging Asia Pacific markets accounted for roughly 17 percent of GSK’s sales in 2010 as compared with 18 percent for Pfizer and 30 percent for SA. Sales revenues for most major pharmaceutical companies declined in both the US and Europe last year. There is no question that big pharma is turning to emerging markets as a means to maintain and increase sales of drugs after patents expire and generic competition cuts into revenue. Sales in emerging markets are predicted to reach about $400 billion by 2020 which is equivalent to the current size of the US and the five biggest European markets combined!

By its own admission, GSK was “fairly late” in their investments in China and may explain why the company may be experiencing trouble with competing for talent in that market. Employment opportunities in emerging markets will likely resemble those in the late 1990s in the US and Europe, when there was a dearth of talents life sciences professionals and companies were willing to pay large salaries (regardless of whether or not job candidates were qualified) to employees to maintain operations. This trend is driving up labor costs in China and interestingly, China is beginning to outsource work to Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore where labor and raw materials costs are less expensive.

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (Go East Young Man and Woman)

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Despite public assertions made by Novartis a mere eight days ago that it would not be eliminating thousands of jobs, the company today announced that it was eliminating 1,400 sales reps. Roughly 1,150 jobs will be cut from its primary care division—which is being consolidated into three units from four in the US—and another 250 from psychiatric and neuroscience. No jobs will be eliminated from Novartis’ headquarters in Hanover, NJ. While the job cuts announced today were not in the thousands (almost) it isn’t clear whether or not more are to come.

According to a post on today’s Pharmalot blog:

"Novartis had attempted to dampen speculation that a huge bloodletting was imminent after Roche disclosed plans to axe 4,800 jobs worldwide (back story) and, in fact, Joe Jiminez, the CEO, had written on his internal blog that news reports about big layoffs were inaccurate. Technically, the Novartis reduction is not in the thousands, but the number is still large and, essentially, confirms concerns that have been expressed over the past month at CafePharma, the online forum where reps dish the dirt (look here)."

Don’t you just love the holidays?

Until next time...

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

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The Pharmalot Blog today reported that the Japanese drug maker Shionogi Pharmaceuticals is testing  a novel approach to hiring new pharmaceutical sales reps. 

According to the post, Shionogi has eight open positions to fill in the US which in of itself is interesting considering that as many as 80,000 pharma sales reps may have lost their jobs over the past three years or so. But, after a little digging, Ed Silverman, who writes the Pharmalot blog discovered something a little different about the ads for the jobs.

 “The ads state expressly that anyone with a background in pharma sales is not wanted for the jobs, which pay around $40,000-plus, not counting a bonus of $17,000 to $19,000 and the usual frills, such as the use of a company car. You do, however, need a bachelor’s degree - no major is specified - and must be outgoing, upbeat and comfortable speaking with others (see a job description here).”

Ed posits that by eschewing reps with prior experience the company will spend a lot less money and are likely to be more “trainable” than experienced, higher priced reps who may have developed “bad habits.” And, according to Ed, some those bad habits may include those who may be “inclined to look for off-label marketing violations that could be the stuff of whistleblower lawsuits or those who are primed to seek opportunities to sue for overtime pay.” 

Oh that Ed, what a kidder!

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!

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Astellas, Japan’s second largest pharmaceutical company, yesterday announced that it will hire at least 300 new pharma sales reps in China as part of its ambitious plan to increase its global revenue stream by 17 per cent over the next five years.

Documents released by the company indicate that it expects sales to double in China by March, 2015 emphasizing the fact that emerging markets will likely drive the future growth of the pharmaceutical industry. Astellas hopes to expand the indications for Prograf, its top selling organ transplantation medication to include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus nephritis, ulcerative colitis and myasthenia gravis.

Earlier this month, Astellas revealed that it would purchase NY-based OSI pharmaceuticals for $4.0 billion. The purchase will provide Astellas with its first approved cancer drug (OSI’s Tarceva) and allow Astellas to establish a firmer footing in the US pharmaceutical and biotechnology markets.

Total worldwide net sales of Tarceva for 2009, were approximately $1.2 billion and OSI's share of those revenues were $359 million. In the first quarter of 2010, Tarceva sales grew 10%

While hiring 300 reps in China may be good for the Chinese economy, the OSI deal will likely result in job cuts and further exacerbate the growing unemployment rate in the New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania region.

Unlike the US, there seems to be a growing need for pharmaceutical and biotechnology R&D and sales employees in China and other parts of Asia. To that end, I hear that Beijing and Shanghai are lovely this time of year!!!!

Until next time...

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

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Eli Lilly and Co. announced last Thursday that it plans on cutting 200 sales and marketing support jobs in its U.S. biomedicine group. More than half of those cuts will take place in Indianapolis, the corporate headquarters of the company. The cuts are the latest wave of the drugmaker's previously announced plans to chop 5,500 jobs worldwide by the end of 2011. The layoffs will be the largest since Lilly eliminated 200 jobs from its research laboratories in March.

Big pharmaceutical companies have been laying off marketing and sales reps for the past three years or so in response to lack of newly approved drugs and anticipated revenue losses from blockbuster drugs that are nearing patent expiry. According to a recent survey conducted by SDI Health the number of pharmaceutical sales reps has shrunk to roughly 81,780 in last year’s third quarter from 101,818 in 2005: a nearly 20 per cent. Further a recent post on the Pharmalot blog revealed that “last year, the number of docs willing to see most reps fell nearly 20 percent, the number of prescribers refusing to see most reps increased by half and the number of management-planned sales calls that were nearly impossible to complete topped 8 million” according to ZS Associates, which monitored interactions involving 500,000 physicians nationwide.

Declining revenues from brand name prescription drugs combined with the changing attitudes of physicians to sales reps suggest that marketing and sales jobs in the pharmaceutical industry may become scare in the future. However, as the biotechnology continues to mature, the need for sales reps with backgrounds in molecular biology and protein-based drugs will continue to increase.

While most physicians are very familiar and comfortable with small molecule prescription drugs, their understanding and familiarity with biotechnology drugs is surprisingly deficient. This suggests that PhD-trained life scientists, who are outgoing and don’t have problems “selling”, may want to consider careers in biotechnology sales or marketing.

Until next time…

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

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According to a post on Pharmalot, a great blog run by the intrepid Ed Silverman, Sanofi-Aventis is laying off 400 employees; most of the them sales representative. The layoffs are in response to impending generic competition for several of the company’s older medications— the Ambien CR sleeping pill and Aplenzin antidepressant and declining sales of Actonel an osteoporosis medication. And, based on statements made by a company executive who manages the company’s therapeutic portfolio this may only be the tip of the iceberg as revenues from brand drugs continue to decline over the next few years.

Until next time..

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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According to an article that appeared in the Indian publication The Hindu Business Line, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is set to increase the size of its Indian marketing and sales force to better support the sale of vaccines and other specialty products. A company executive said that GSK will add another 200 people to its 2,250 member sales and marketing team.

GSK is repositioning itself to be more competitive in developing and emerging markets like India, China, Brazil and elsewhere. The announcement to increase the size of its workforce in India comes only a couple of weeks after the company announced massive global layoffs that would affect at least 4,000 GSK employees.

Hat tip to Ed at Pharmalot!

Until next time...

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

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Pfizer today announced that it’s looking to increase its sales force in China to 3,200 by the end of next year, up from about 2,300. The company expects to have sales representatives in about 250 Chinese cities by the end of 2011. It presently has a sales presence in about 185 cities. Previously, Pfizer it will cut nearly 20,000 jobs as part of the Wyeth merger. Over the pass several years more than 50,000 US pharma sales reps have lost their jobs.

Eli Lilly said last fall that it would continue to hire in China, even as it cuts jobs in the U.S. and other developed markets. Novartis is also making a big push into China, hiring hundreds of workers and spending $1 billion to expand a research center in Shanghai.

With business tough in developed markets, drug makers are counting on the developing world for growth and are expanding into biotechnology and generic drug manufacturing.

Like it or not, the emerging markets in China, India, Brazil and elsewhere represent a substantial upside whereas markets in the developing world are becoming less profitable. Drug companies, like most other large multinational companies, always will follow the profit stream not matter where it takes them or at what cost to the folks at home.

Until next time...

 Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (Try China, I hear they are looking for sales reps)

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It is getting difficult to keep track of the job cuts that are happening almost daily at Pfizer. A quick perusal of the job cuts to date indicate that the company has eliminated about 1200 jobs in the past week; 680 in Pennsylvania, 400 in New Jersey and 116 in Rockland County, NY (where I grew up!). While there is currently a lull in activity, I suspect additional job cuts will be forthcoming in the near future.

Merck earlier announced that it was slashing about 500 jobs in New Jersey which continues the ongoing carnage that the NJ pharmaceutical workforce had to endure over the past three years.

Meanwhile, in New England, Charles River Laboratories International announced that it is suspending operations at its Shrewsbury, MA facility by the middle of this year. Approximately 300 workers will be losing their jobs at the facility that focused on preclinical drug development.

Despite claims that the US economy is improving, life sciences layoffs are continuing and job growth is much slower than expected. While some economists aren’t that surprised, I would be nervous and exploring my options if I was employed at a life sciences company!

Until next time...

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

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Just when you thought things couldn’t get much worse for New Jersey, Merck and Pfizer today disclosed that it will eliminate 900 more jobs in NJ. While the job cuts were expected, it is still bad news for New Jersey’s life sciences workforce.

Based on information provided by the New Jersey Department of Labor website Pfizer will eliminate 400 jobs from Monmouth Junction, NJ where Wyeth previously maintained research offices. Similarly, Merck plans on cutting 500 jobs in Kenilworth, NJ where Schering Plough’s maintained its former headquarters. While it isn’t clear what types of jobs will be affected, cuts are expected in both R&D and sales continuing an ongoing trend that began almost three years ago. In case you haven’t been paying attention, most major American pharmaceutical companies have been eliminating R&D jobs in the US and either outsourcing those activities or building new research facilities in India, China, Brazil and Eastern Europe where there are lost cost, highly trained pharmaceutical scientists.

Until next time...

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

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As a blogger I get on average 2-3 press releases per day from publicists who want me to pick up their releases and publish them on BioJobBlog. I usually pass. But, the one that I received from a publicist who represents eco-friendly and politically-correct Red Handed Bags was too good not to share with my readers (see below)

Pharm giant sales force goes green with high fashion handbags

Raleigh NC-based fashion designers Aaron Turney and Tracy Russomano are used to working with fashion conscious women.  But this year, they devoted their special talents efforts to addressing the special needs of a unique group of highly specialized handbag users – pharmaceutical sales reps.

GlaxoSmithKline asked them to design an environmentally friendly work bag specifically for their pharmaceutical sales reps to use on the job.

Redhanded Bags has created a line of beautiful handbags using green technologies, animal free materials, and sweat free manufacturing facilities and workforces. 

“It’s pretty admirable that they’ve set themselves a goal for using handbags that don’t hurt animals, don’t pollute the environment and don’t exploit anyone,” said Tracy Russomano. “We worked directly with the sales people to design the ideal pharm sales rep bag. When we were done, GSKs onsite ergonomist gives the bags an excellent rating for ergonomic design.”  

“Handbags should turn heads, bring out inner beauty, and contribute to a sustainable environment,” said Ms. Russomano. “Pharmaceutical sales reps can look great  and be eco-friendly.”  I am partial to the middle bag; which one is your fav?

I find it admirable that GSK is thinking environmentally. However, are several thousand eco-friendly handbags for sales reps really going to make a difference? I think it would behoove GSK and other drug makers to invest in developing green manufacturing technologies and facilities if they are truly concerned about reducing the size of their carbon foot prints. 

After visiting the Red Handed bags website, I agree with Ms Russomano, that pharma reps (who still have jobs)  will look great and turn some head while sporting the new bags (exactly what GSK wants). That said, it is extremely gratifying to know that the environment is safe, no animals were killed and no workers were exploited to help sales reps sell drugs to their customers!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Shopping (check out the handcuff clutch)

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Eli Lilly & Co. is offering buyouts to 4,000 U.S. sales representatives to eliminate several hundred jobs and restructure its operations. Sales representatives will be offered four months' pay in addition to the typical Eli Lilly severance package, which ranges from two to 18 months' salary depending on seniority. The company had a total of 40,500 employees at the end of 2008.

Lilly’s best-selling drugs include Zyprexa for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Cymbalta for depression, Byetta for type 2 diabetes, and Evista for osteoporosis. The patent supporting Zyprexa, which bought in $4.7 billion in revenue last year, will expire in 2011. The patents on the company's next three top drugs —Cymbalta, Humalog insulin, and cancer drug Gemzar —are set to expire in 2013.

The restructuring is expected to start in mid-November and take effect in January.

Sales reps and R&D scientists have suffered the most during pharma’s recent three year downsizing binge. While many R&D jobs have been shipped overseas, pharma sales reps might consider a new career in biotechnology drug sales. Growth in biotechnology and personalized medicine drugs is expected to increase for the foreseeable future.

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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The Pharmalot blog reported yesterday that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will tell its US pharma employees today about a new reorganization plan that will include more job cuts. The restructuring will primarily affect sales reps and some R&D personnel. GSK, like most other pharma companies, has been steadily downsizing operations and headcount for the past year or so at its US locations in Research Triangle Park, NC and Philadelphia PA

Look for the layoffs to occur before Thanksgiving—just about the time when employee’s annual bonuses are calculated.

Until next time…

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

P.S.  It was learned today by the Phamalot Blog that 1,880 sales reps and sales support staff job will be eliminated over the next few months. Also, the company may consolidate its Philadelphia and Research Triangle Park headquarters.

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I want to thank my esteemed colleague, Ed Silverman at Pharmalot, for the heads up on this post.  As part of Wyeth’s asset realignment program dubbed “Project Impact”, the company announced today that it would cut another 1,200 jobs at “all facilities in all capacities.”  Meanwhile, late last Friday 141 people at Wyeth’s Pearl River, NY, facility were laid off. Most of the jobs that were cut were in manufacturing and R&D. Of interest, last Friday was also Bob Essner’s last day as Wyeth’s CEO (he will continue as Chairman through December 31, 2008). For those of you who may be interested, Bob’s total compensation package in 2007 was about $20 million (his base salary was a paltry $1.73 million).

The most recent layoffs were made as part of the drug maker’s previously announced plan to cut up to 10 percent of its global workforce of 50,000 by 2011. Wyeth executives contend that Project Impact is warranted because of increased generic drug competition and a weak product pipeline. As you may recall, Wyeth previously laid off 1,240 sales reps late last month due to sagging sales of several of its consumer and pharmaceutical brands.

These new layoffs couldn’t come at a worst time for Wyeth employees. For those of you who still have jobs at the company, I highly recommend that you begin to explore alternative career opportunities. It is going to be a long and difficult ride!

Until next time… 

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (if there are any left) !!!!!!!

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