AstraZeneca Offers New Details About Its Global Layoff Plans
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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The past couple of weeks have been awful for employees at 
Despite the announcement late last week in the London Sunday Times that 
While I never was involved in a corporate acquisition or merger, I have many friends who have lived through them and based on their experiences it is a never a “pretty sight.” Merger aftermaths usually feature massive layoffs, executive management disputes and turf wars and corporate culture clashes tha occur when two workforces are forced to merge as one. However, sometimes mergers may be a good thing for struggling companies. To that end, Pfizer 
I previously posted several articles on 
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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;.jpg)
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The holiday season is officially over and its time to face the prospects of a new year! The good news is that the economy is recovering and new job opportunities are beginning to appear at an increasing rate. To that end, it may be a good time to re-evaluate your career options and fine tune every element of your ongoing job search. The most obvious activities include updating your resume (assuming that things have changed since 2009), resuming your networking activities and looking online for new job prospects. However, Phyllis Korkki, a New York Times career columnist, 
Losing a job or getting laid off is without a doubt one of the more emotionally devastating events that most people face. Unfortunately, in these troubling financial times, many more people are likely to face this likelihood than any other time in recent history.
For the past 10 years or so, I have been providing career counseling and development seminars and workshops for life scientists. In the early years, students, postdocs and a smattering of faculty members would attend to learn about the industry trends, the job market and more recently alternate careers for PhDs and postdoctoral fellows. However, over the last few years, a disturbing trend has emerged—the lack of .jpg)
After 
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,.gif)
As somebody who has been unemployed more than once, unemployment can be depressing, very frustrating and extremely worrisome..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)
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The bad news is that the US unemployment rate is close to 10 percent. The good news is that the government is looking for scientists at FDA, NIH, USDA, CDC, EPA and other agencies. For those of you who haven’t applied for a government job, the process can be daunting and overwhelming. To alleviate some of the pain, Cyndi Fischer, MSA at the .jpg)
I have heard from many jobseekers, who—despite many years of work experience— are having difficulty finding full time employment. During economic down turns many companies cannot or are reluctant to hire full time employees. However, this doesn’t mean that there is work to be done. Consequently, many firms look for part-time, temporary or contract workers to handle the work that must get done to maintain operations..jpg)
Losing a job is a BIG deal whether you were layed off, fired or right-sized out of it. Not only do you have to worry about health insurance, bills and paying rent or making a mortgage payment, you must also deal with a myriad of self esteem and emotional issues that frequently arise after losing a job. While there are many articles and books that describe how to functionally conduct a job search after being layed off, there are only a handful that discuss how to cope with the stress and negative emotions that frequently accompany job loss.
We are living in financially uncertain times. While economic indicators suggest that the recession might be drawing to a close, most financial pundits agree that unemployment will continue to rise long after the economy has improved. Most people who have lost a job will tell you how emotionally and psychologically—not to mention financially—debilitating it can be. People who have been unemployed for more than a couple of months are typically desperate to find work. And, as the old adage goes “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” To that end, many unemployed workers may consider job opportunities that they normally wouldn’t consider during more certain times. Unfortunately, criminals, grifters and con artists are keenly aware of this and frequently prey upon and take advantage of unemployed workers.
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 
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. .jpg)
Forbes Magazine released its 
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.
Late last week, Roche raised the price of its hostile offer to buy out .jpg)
Merck announced today that it was buying Schering Plough, the Kenilworth-New Jersey based drug maker, for $41.1 billion. The deal comes only six weeks after Pfizer said that it would purchase NJ-based Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Superficially, the deal may make sense for the two struggling drug makers—they co-market the cholesterol-lowering drug Vytorin and also have collaborations in the respiratory diseases area. Also, Schering Plough has the European rights to the anti-arthritis drug Remicade and its 2007 purchase of the Dutch biopharmaceutical company Organon Biosciences NV provides access to several potential biotechnology drugs. Nevertheless, the impending merger will ultimately result in job losses and higher unemployment in the state of New Jersey.
It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, but according to a recent survey of 3,000 job seekers conducted by the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas the time it takes to find a job is growing longer. For example, the median time for job searches conducted by those winning positions grew from 3.6 months in the second quarter to 4.4 months in the third quarter of 2008. Also, it found that 13.4% of job seekers relocated to take new positions in the third quarter of 2008. While this is up from a first quarter figure of 8.9%, it is still lower than the percentage of job seekers (15%-16%) who relocated in 2006 and part of 2007. 
Much like Paul Revere back in the day, there have been repeated, urgent warnings about the impending recession that will strike the US economy. Not surprisingly, the Bush administration has done its best to deny the notion that the moribund US economy is actually in recession. 
