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Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories today announced that it would lay off 700 employees from its medical devices and diagnostics division as part of an ongoing restructuring effort. 

Most of the layoffs will take place in the Chicago area and affect employees that manufacture the company’s cardiovascular stents and diagnostic tests. According to a company spokesperson approximately 500 persons who work in stent manufacturing and 200 who work in diagnostics will lose their jobs.

The restructuring of Abbott’s manufacturing operations began several years ago and about this time last year the company layed off about 1,900 employees in Lake County, Illinois.

In October, Abbott surprised investors and analysts with the announcement that it would spin off its branded drug business, including Humira (psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis) it’s largest selling branded pharmaceutical product. Company executives argued that the split would allow stakeholders and investors to separately and more accurately value Abbott’s other less risky businesses which include nutritional (baby) formula, generic drugs and medical devices and diagnostics.

Despite signs of economic recovery, it appears that layoffs are still occurring at a pretty good clip at many pharma and biotech companies. It now appears that medical devices and diagnostic company employees, who were once immune to downsizing and reorganization, are now fair game.

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Last week, US unemployment dipped to 8.6%, it lowest level since 2008. Stock markets rose and everyone was buoyed by a possible economic recovery. What a difference one week can make. Today, Astra Zeneca announced that it will layoff 1,150 sales reps; a few short weeks after announcing plans to eliminate 400 jobs at is US headquarters in Wilmington, DE. The company currently employs about 61,000 workers worldwide, including 14, 000 in North America.

According to the president of Astra Zeneca US, today’s announcement is part of the larger layoff of 10, 400 employees announced back in 2010. These layoffs are largely the result of loss of patent protection for several of Astra Zeneca’s largest selling drugs including Crestor (cholesterol), Nexium (acid reflux) and Sereoquel (anti-pyschotic).  Today’s announcement brings the total of US pharmaceutical employees who lost their jobs this year to about 20,000 according to a post on the Pharmalot blog.

Tis the season, after all!

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Last week Amgen announced that it was reorganizing its R&D structure and that layoffs were likely. Today, the company announced that it had hired Tony Hooper, very recently the former senior vice president, Commercial Operations, and president, U.S., Japan and Intercontinental at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) to overhaul commercial operations. Shortly after the Hooper announcement almost 400 Amgen employees learned that they would lose their jobs.

Hooper will replace Jim Daly as executive vice president of commercial operations at Amgen. During his 16 year tenure at BMS, Hooper ran commercial operations for all of BMS’ products in both mature and emerging markets.

Amgen is reorganizing its R&D efforts because its EPO franchise revenues are declining and it is preparing to launch its recently approved osteoporosis drug called Prolia. According to a post on today’s Pharmalot blog the R&D overhaul is not an across the board reduction but will affect multiple sites. At present, Amgen employs about 17,600 workers worldwide.

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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!

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Remember when Amgen was the world’s largest and most profitable biotechnology company? That was way back in 2006 before its marketing and sales team got in trouble for “pushing” the sale of its erythropoietin (EPO) product Epogen and Aranesp beyond acceptable patient safety limits. This, along with a relatively thin new drug pipeline, has for the past five years or so relegated the company to second tier biotech company status.

To make matter worse, a company spokesperson mentioned its third-quarter earnings conference call today that the company is

 “...currently evaluating some changes within our Research & Development organization to improve focus and to reallocate resources to key pipeline assets and activities." This typically means that the possibility of layoffs is real. The last major restructuring of the company took place in 2007 and it resulted in the elimination of more than 2,000 jobs worldwide, including about 700 in Thousand Oaks.

This past June, Amgen announced plans to eliminate 134 jobs at two of its manufacturing sites in Colorado.

The company employs about 17,000 people, including about 6,200 in Thousand Oaks. Amgen also has research and development facilities in Thousand Oaks, South San Francisco,; Cambridge and Woburn, Mass.; Seattle; Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada; Abingdon, Cambridge and Uxbridge, Great Britain; and Regensburg, Germany.

In 2010, Amgen's revenue totaled $15.1 billion, while research and development cost $2.9 billion, according to the company. Its net profit last year totaled $4.63 billion, up slightly less than 1 percent from 2009.

Could this signal the beginning of the end of this once formidable biotechnology giant? If I was an Amgen employee I would be feverishly updating my CV right about now!

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Ask any pharmaceutical industry pundits about the “next big thing” in life sciences R&D and most will invariably say neuroscience indications like Alzheimer's, Parkinson Disease and the like. Curiously, despite these prognostications, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) today announced that it would lay off 50 employees involved in neuroscience R &D.

The affected workers, all of whom are scientists working on late stage clinical development at various sites throughout the US, were first notified about the layoff on Valentine’s Day (nice gift). Interestingly, a GSK spokesperson was quick to point out that other neuroscience employees including marketing and sales would not be affected by the layoffs. Hm mm, I always thought you needed scientists to discover the drugs that will ultimately be marketed and sold by a company? In any event, no GSK operations outside of the US were affected by this round of layoffs.

The reason why the layoffs only affected clinical scientists is because GSK scaled back its investment into early stage research. And, according to the GSK spokesperson this means that “there’s not as much coming through that needs later stage clinical trials.” Also, last year, after GSK released fiscal 2009 results, the company announced it would “cease discovery research in selected neuroscience areas, including depression and pain.” I guess most of the layed off scientists worked on depression and pain (two emotions that layed off workers frequently suffer).

In case you haven’t noticed (because you spend too much time in the lab and on Facebook), most major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have slashed their investments into new drug discovery and development. This means that the demand for R&D scientists (in the US anyway) is much lower than ever before. Consequently, as I have stated numerous times in the past, now may be the time for graduate students and postdocs considering industrial R&D careers to re-evaluate their plans (unless R&D careers in emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, India and China are attractive).

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Late last Friday, Sanofi-Aventis announced that it was restructuring it US pharmaceutical business to meet the demands of a more challenging American healthcare market. The company said that it will streamline U.S. Pharmaceutical Operations and reduce its workforce by an estimated 25 percent. This translates into eliminating approximately 1,700 positions. Decisions about the breadth and scope of the cuts will be finalized by mid-December.

Of the 13,000 US employees, 6,900 work in the Pharmaceutical Operations division. Other Sanofi-Aventis affiliates in the United States include its R&D group, Sanofi Pasteur Vaccines, BiPar and Chattem: its consumer healthcare business.

According to Gregory Irace, President of Sanofi-Aventis and CEO of Sanofi-Aventis US/.Canada Pharmaceutical Operations,

“Given the serious challenges facing our organization and the healthcare industry, it is important to act decisively now so that our organization has greater stability moving forward and that our resources are allocated to our strategic growth priorities. These changes will foster a renewed focus on the strong growth and pipeline opportunities that will drive our vision of being a diversified healthcare leader.” Sanofi faces a serious “patent cliff” in the very near future; mainly because its top selling anti-clotting drug Plavix is slated to lose patent protection in 2011. Also, the company lacks expertise in biotechnology: the discipline that most big pharma companies is going to drive future growth in the industry."

The lack of biotechnology prowess is largely responsible for Sanofi’s attempt to purchase Genzyme, one of the largest and profitable biotechnology companies in the world.

Last week, Sanofi confirmed that its bid for Genzyme had become hostile because its management team and board of directors failed to seriously consider a bid tendered at $69 per share or $18.5 billion. Genzyme’s management team and board of directors immediately rejected the hostile bid (as it did in the past when the offer was “friendly”). The hostile bid allows Sanofi-Aventis to bypass Genzyme’s Board and appeal directly to its shareholders to consider the offer.

Restructuring of its US pharmaceutical operations, may be a sign that Sanofi-Aventis is attempting to cut costs to finance the all cash deal.

I suspect that Sanofi-Aventis will prevail in its bid for Genzyme; but it will have to sweeten the offer to appease activist investor Carl Icahn who is likely seeking an offer in excess of $75 per share.

If I were a betting man, I would put my money on Icahn—a brilliant financial strategist who frequently gets what he wants

Stay tuned for more late-breaking Sanofi-Aventis/Genzyme news!

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AstraZeneca PLC said today it , or 12 percent of its work force, by 2014 to cut costs as it reported disappointing fourth quarter earnings. The job cuts will be made across all regions and divisions and were necessary because some of the company’s major products including the child asthma medication Pulmicort, which made sales of $1.3 billion in 2009, and breast cancer treatment Arimidex, with $1.92 billion in sales will be losing patent protection in the near future.

CEO David Brennan said the company was extending a cost-cutting program it launched in 2007, which had saved the company $1.6 billion annually at the end of 2009.Extending the program out to 2014 will cost another $2 billion, with expected benefits of $1.9 billion a year by 2014, he said.

Around 12,600 jobs having already been eliminated under the program, although Brennan suggested that the net figure was closer to 4,600 after new roles were created by the company, which employs around 63,000 people worldwide.

The new round of cuts will be global, including sales and marketing, business infrastructure, research and development and the supply chain. The company’s research & development division will lose about 1,800 jobs and according to Brennan there may be some closures of research and development sites or facilities as part of the restructuring. The company is reported to be waiting for regulatory approval of five new products.

Despite claims that the US economy is improving, big pharma continues to downsize its R&D workforce. Call me crazy, but aren’t these the same companies that argue that healthcare reform will stifle innovation and hinder new drug discovery? This begs the question: how do you discover new and novel medicines and treatments if the people who discover and develop drugs no longer work at your company? There is always outsourcing and M&A I suppose.

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Sanofi Aventis asked it entire sales force to remain at home the Monday after Thanksgiving to wait for a phone call to see whether or not they still had jobs. Nice way for the affected employees to spend Thanksgiving, eh?

Sanofi-Aventis is laying off an unspecified number of US sales reps, as the firm restructures because of generic exposure on some of its lead products including its blockbuster anti-clotting drug Plavix. The layoffs are part of a transformation that began last year, shortly after new CEO Chris Viehbacher took charge at the company. At the time, Sanofi-Aventis announced plans to cut 10% or less of its 6,500 US reps. According to a post at BNET, the company currently employs about 5,600 reps. Those laid off will get three weeks’ base pay per year of service, up to a maximum of 78 weeks’ base pay.

A company spokesperson said “Sanofi-Aventis U.S. is continuing to evolve in order to deliver greater value to our customers in a rapidly changing business climate. This includes changes to our sales force to better correspond with market dynamics and customer needs. As a part of our continuing transformation, we have identified areas where we will prioritize sales support and others where reductions are necessary.”

Sanofi joins a growing number of pharmaceutical companies that made it something of a tradition to layoff employees immediately before or during the holiday season. I guess company executives believe that the blow may be less devastating if the ex-employees get to spend more time with their families during the holidays. Unlike most corporate executives who are paid millions when they are fired, many laid off pharmaceutical companies will have a tough time finding new employment opportunities in the rapidly shrinking US pharmaceutical job market. At last count, about 59,000 pharmaceutical employees lost their jobs in 2009. Don’t be surprised if more pharmaceutical layoffs are announced in the coming weeks.

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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.

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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.

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Medtronics, the world's largest medical-device company, announced today that it will lay off 1,500-1,800 employees after posting a fiscal fourth-quarter profit that plunged 69 percent on slipping sales,restructuring and other charges. About 400 employees already have accepted buyout offers and will leave the company by the end of the month.

Until now, the medical devices and diagnostic industries, unlike pharma and biotech had had remained unscathed by the current economic downturn. Medtronic’s financial woes are mainly a result of questions about its implantable devices which have come under fire recently because of safety concerns. Nevertheless, don’t be surprised if you see other medical devices and diagnostic companies begin to layoff workers as the financial crisis deepens and medical and healthcare costs continue to rise.

Hat tip to Iguana Bio.

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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 well crafted article that provides some ideas and solutions to deal with this often vexing problem.

Read and learn!

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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.

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 Merck announced today that as part of its ongoing restructuring plan to cut costs it will eliminate approximately 7,200 positions — 6,800 active employees and 400 vacancies — across all areas of the Company worldwide by the end of 2011.  This amounts to a 12 percent reduction in the company’s workforce. About 40 percent of the total reductions will occur in the United States.  To streamline management layers across the Company, Merck will reduce its total number of senior and mid-level executives by approximately 25 percent.  These positions are in addition to the 10,400 positions.  As of Sept. 30, Merck has approximately 56,700 employees. In addition to the layoffs, Merck will close three research facilities; one in Tsukuba, Japan; another in Pomezia, Italy and one in Seattle Washington by the end of 2009.

Merck expects the 2008 cutbacks to save the company $3.8 billion to $4.2 billion over the next five years. BioJobBlog reported several weeks ago that Merck had been quietly laying off employees since September. I suspect that today’s announcement comes as no surprise to employees who still work at the Company.

New Jersey once dubbed “America’s medicine chest” is starting to look less full!

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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.

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According to Ed Silverman at Pharmalot the newly-formed executive steering committee at Sanofi-Aventis sent a letter to its R &D employees it will take care of implementing “strategic moves,” apportioning resources, overseeing overall management.

A Sanofi spokesman said “is a condensed structure, designed to facilitate quick decision making.” Yeah right–look for some corporate right sizing, allocation of strategic resources and job cuts at the French drug maker.

On another note, West Pharmaceutical Services, a Lionville, PA-based Company announced that it would shed 250 jobs or 13% of its work force as part of a restructuring program. A company spokesperson said it will reduce spending throughout the segment by consolidating two tool production operations into one facility, in Scottsdale, Ariz., and by reductions and consolidations at other production, engineering and administrative operations in North America.

Until next time….

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