AstraZeneca slashes 1,150 U.S. sales jobs

AstraZeneca is cutting nearly a quarter of its U.S. sales force in a second wave of redundancies in as many months as it seeks to reduce costs.



Britain's second biggest drugmaker said on Wednesday it would cut about 1,150 sales representative and management jobs at a cost of between $50 million and $100 million, charged in the fourth quarter.



Rich Fante, president of AstraZeneca U.S., said it was a difficult decision to make the reductions, which represent 24 percent of the U.S. sales organization and come on top of 400 job U.S. losses announced in October.



"The changes we are making, however, will help us deliver better results for our business and, most importantly, continue delivering on our mission of patient health," he said.



Since restructuring costs are not included in the company's core earnings measure, the cost of the cuts will not have any impact on its guidance for core earnings per share for 2011.



Generic competition and pricing pressures are already weighing on AstraZeneca's sales in the world's biggest market and things are about to get tougher.



Over the next few years, analysts forecast a steady decline in sales at the London-based group because patents expire on big sellers like Nexium for heartburn and schizophrenia drug Seroquel.



What is more, it faces a major challenge to its biggest-selling medicine Crestor, following the arrival of cheap generic copies of Pfizer's market-leading cholesterol pill Lipitor, which hit the market at the end of November.



AstraZeneca has relatively few new drugs to replace such blockbusters, leaving its sales line exposed and its management under pressure to cut costs wherever possible.



The latest round of job cuts, which are expected to be finalized by early February 2012, are in addition to the wide-ranging program of 8,000 job cuts, designed to be implemented over several years, that AstraZeneca announced in January 2010.



The likes of Pfizer, Merck and Novartis have also announced major job cuts but the scale of the retrenchment has been particularly severe at AstraZeneca.



The impact of the latest U.S. changes will vary by geography and selling teams and a company spokeswoman said AstraZeneca was looking to make greater use of alternative methods for promoting its medicines, such as online tools.




Source : Reuters
 [tags : recession bankrupt collapse retrenchment financial news collapse stagnation economic slowdown financial collapse world recession global recession layoff job cut]

Pfizer to cut 6,000 jobs

Drugmaker Pfizer Inc will cut 6,000 jobs, or 18 per cent of the workforce, at its 78 manufacturing plants over the next five years as it pares back operations following last year's purchase of rival Wyeth.

The firm plans to cease operations at eight plants in Ireland, Puerto Rico and the US by late 2015 and cut activities at six factories in those countries, plus Germany and Britain.

Pfizer had 40 manufacturing sites before acquiring more than three dozen Wyeth facilities in the October merger.

The affected plants make conventional pills, injectable medicines, biotech drugs and consumer healthcare products.
Pfizer will wind down their operations over the next 18 months to five years, depending on business considerations such as the time required to transfer product manufacturing.

The firm said in November it would close six research sites and trim jobs in the US and Britain as part of its absorption of Wyeth. It then began a six-month study of how to reconfigure its manufacturing sites.

"We have a complex network of manufacturing plants, with excess capacity that is not good for costs," Nat Ricciardi, Pfizer's president of manufacturing, said in an interview.

Pfizer can be more competitive, both in its operations and drug pricing, by streamlining its plants and improving their processes, Ricciardi said.

"It's not disproportionately Wyeth," Ricciardi said, adding that many legacy Pfizer plants and employees are on the target list. Half of the plants slated for ceased operations are legacy Pfizer sites, the firm said.

One of the biggest incentives for companies to merge is the ability to cut overlapping operations and employees. Pfizer said it is on track to realise total cost reductions from the deal of US$4 billion to US$5 billion (US$1 = RM3.24) by 2012.

Pfizer in early 2009, at the time the Wyeth deal was announced, said it expected to cut 15 per cent of the combined workforce - or almost 20,000 jobs.

The firm is counting on the savings to help offset expected plunging sales of its US$12 billion a year Lipitor cholesterol fighter, which will face generic competition late next year.


Source : BusinessTimes

[tags : recession bankrupt collapse retrenchment financial news collapse stagnation economic slowdown financial collapse world recession global recession layoff job cut]

GSK to cut 6,000 jobs

GlaxoSmithKline is likely to announce thousands of new job cuts this week, a British newspaper is reporting.

The Sunday Telegraph, without citing its sources, says GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) is “putting the finishing touches” on plans to lay off some 6,000 of its 100,000 workers. The drug company could announce the cuts when it announces earnings Feb. 5, the newspaper says .

GSK already is in the midst of a $1.4 billion cost-cutting program, announced in 2007, that has led to hundreds of job cuts in the Triangle, where the company employs about 5,000 people. Local cuts have included administrative, scientific and sales workers at GSK's U.S. headquarters in Research Triangle Park as well as manufacturing workers at the company's plant in Zebulon, where about 900 are still employed.

A GlaxoSmithKline spokeswoman said there was nothing she could say about the Telegraph's report.

"We can't comment on rumors," said Mary Anne Rhyne, who is based at RTP.

According to reports, GSK’s new job cuts are likely to be announced as an extension of its current plans. U.S. sales staff are likely to be hard hit as Glaxo shifts its sales model and gets increasing competition from generic drugs, the Telegraph reports.

In November, GSK announced 1,800 job cuts , including 1,000 layoffs, in its sales staff.

Source : Biz Journals
[tags : recession bankrupt collapse retrenchment financial news collapse stagnation economic slowdown financial collapse world recession global recession layoff job cut]

Pfizer to cut 19,000 jobs as it confirms Wyeth deal

US drugs company Pfizer confirmed it is buying rival Wyeth for $68bn (£50bn), as it announced more than 19,000 job cuts.

The two companies employ about 6,500 people in the UK. Pfizer expects to cut the combined global workforce of 130,000 people by 15pc. This includes plans to cut its own workforce by 10pc.

Pfizer chief executive Jeff Kindler said the job cuts were "difficult and painful but very necessary" owing to a slowdown in sales. The company yesterday reported plunging fourth-quarter profits, hit by a $2.3bn legal charge.

Pfizer has been under pressure to do a deal as it faces a patent "cliff" in 2011, when it loses its exclusive right to produce cholesterol drug Lipitor.

Lipitor is the world's top-selling medicine and is worth almost a quarter of Pfizer's total sales. Mr Kindler said the Wyeth acquisition "definitively" addresses the looming patent expiry.

The tie-up is the largest pharmaceutical deal in nearly a decade and will increase Pfizer's revenue by 50pc, strengthen its number one position in the troubled industry, and transform it from a pure pharmaceutical company into a diversified healthcare giant. The cash-and-shares deal values Wyeth at $50.19 a share, a 15pc premium to its closing price last Friday.

Pfizer has raised $22.5bn of debt from a consortium of banks to help fund the acquisition, which will be paid for in a mixture of cash, debt and shares. Pfizer said it would cut its dividend by half to 16 cents a share to save money for the deal.

Wyeth shareholders will be offered $33, plus just under one share in Pfizer, for each of their shares. Although the boards of both companies have approved the deal it still faces several hurdles: Wyeth shareholders must vote it through; anti-trust regulators have to review it; and Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JPMorgan, Barclays and Citigroup must complete the financing.

Shortly after announcing the deal, Pfizer unveiled a 90pc slump in fourth-quarter net profits to $266m, after a legal settlement over allegations it marketed drugs to address illnesses they were not approved for. Net profits for the year stayed broadly the same as for 2007 at $8bn on revenues unchanged at $48bn.

Pfizer expects the tie-up to create $4bn in cost savings by the end of 2012. The deal should add to Pfizer's earnings per share in the second full year after closing.

Pfizer chief financial officer Frank D'Amelio said the combined entity would achieve revenues of $70bn by 2012 – the sum of both companies' revenues in 2008.

Wyeth chief executive Bernard Poussot will continue to run Wyeth until the deal completes, and may have a role in the enlarged group.

Pfizer, which employs 5,000 people in the UK, has its European R&D headquarters at Sandwich in Kent, and its UK business headquarters in Surrey. Wyeth employs 1,500 UK staff across sites in Berkshire and Hampshire.

Pfizer shares dropped $1.48 to $15.97, while Wyeth picked up $0.30 to $44.04, in early trade.

Source : Telegraph
[tags : recession bankrupt collapse retrenchment financial news collapse stagnation economic slowdown financial collapse world recession global recession layoff job cut]

Bloody Monday: Over 71,400 jobs lost

The final week of January began with a bloodbath for the job market, as over 71,400 more cuts were announced on Monday alone.

At least six companies from manufacturing and service industries announced cost-cutting initiatives that included slashing thousands of jobs.

More than 200,000 job cuts have been announced so far this year, according to company reports. Nearly 2.6 million jobs were lost over 2008, the highest yearly job-loss total since 1945.

"It's all about the consumer, and the consumer's been hit hard," said Robert Brusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics. "It's a vicious circle as weakness begets layoffs, which beget more spending weakness."

Construction machinery manufacturer Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500) said Monday it will cut 20,000 jobs amid a "very challenging global business environment." The company had already planned to cut 15,000 workers since the fourth quarter of 2008, but added another 5,000, bringing the total to 20,000.

Pfizer (PFE, Fortune 500) said in an earnings report it would cut 10% of its staff of 81,900 and close five of its manufacturing plants. And a second round of cuts will shed about 15% of employees from the combined Pfizer/Wyeth staff of 120,000. That makes a total of 26,000 jobs lost. The company already cut 4,700 jobs in 2008.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (S, Fortune 500) will cut a total of about 8,000 jobs by March 31, the company said in a release. The telecommunications company's plan is to reduce internal and external labor costs by about $1.2 billion on an annual basis.

Home Depot (HD, Fortune 500), the world's largest home improvement retailer, announced Monday it will eliminate its EXPO design center business and cut 7,000 associates, or approximately 2% of the company's total workforce. The company blamed a lack of demand for big ticket design and decor projects.

Texas Instruments (TXN, Fortune 500) said it will slash its workforce by 3,400 employees to cope with weak demand and the slowing economy. More than half of those cuts will be layoffs while "voluntary retirements and departures" will make up the rest.

Dutch financial group ING said Monday it will take a 2008 loss of $1.3 billion and cut 7,000 jobs. The company could not comment on where the cuts would take place. ING employs around 130,000 people across 50 countries.

Deere& Co. (DE, Fortune 500) , the world's top farm-equipment maker, said it would cut nearly 700 jobs between factories in Brazil and Iowa.

The job cuts across sectors didn't surprise Brusca, as nearly all are weak, he said.

"The services sector is shedding jobs at a horrific pace, because that's where most of the jobs are," Brusca said. "When the consumer is in tough shape it's hard for business to do well, because it all depends on consumption or investments."

Continuing the scary trend

The cuts mark a horrific start to the week, and a brutal start to 2009. In the previous week, around 40,000 cuts were announced across multiple industries.

Wednesday, in particular, was littered with a slew of job cuts: BHP Billiton, Clear Channel Communications, Intel, Rohm and Haas Co., UAL Corp. and Williams-Sonoma all announced job cuts totaling over 27,000 positions.

Schlumberger said Friday that it will cut 5,000 jobs worldwide, with 1,000 of the cuts taking place in North America.

Also last week, Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Entertainment said it would cut about 800 jobs, or 10% of its worldwide staff in the upcoming weeks, while Microsoft unveiled its plan to cut up to 5,000 jobs - 5.5% of its global workforce.

Outlook: A recovery in sight?

Brusca said he agreed with many economists' predictions that the recession will end after the second quarter of 2009. Americans might feel the job market start to bounce back a bit sooner than expected, he said.

"These recessions are like geometry," Brusca said. "It looks like we'll have a V-shaped cycle, in that we're going into this with very sharp losses. This intense-phase recession will probably recover fairly quickly, with the job market coming out it at the same angle it came in."

In the short term, the economy and the job market are in trouble, Brusca said. But "it doesn't look like the bottom is falling out of the economy," he said.

And there's a silver lining to the gloomy clouds over America's economy.

"The good news is it's so bad right now that we will have a definite, noticeable recovery when it comes," Brusca said. "We're getting a lot of adjustment out of the way early."

Source : CNN
[tags : recession bankrupt collapse retrenchment financial news collapse stagnation economic slowdown financial collapse world recession global recession layoff job cut]

Pfizer to cut another 2,400 jobs

Pfizer will be slashing 2,400 jobs, an anonymous source has told the Wall Street Journal.

The “confirmation” follows rumour and speculation as the world’s largest drugmaker moves to downsize and refocus in the wake of looming patent expiries.

The job cuts are believed to affect sales representatives and middle managers and follows company slimming over the past two years where about 15,000 positions have been dissolved. Just last week Pfizer announced 800 research jobs would be lost.

Pfizer declined to comment or confirm the news. However, it is expected that the job cuts may be announced in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings, which will be published on 28 January.


Source : Pharmatimes
[tags : recession bankrupt collapse retrenchment financial news collapse stagnation economic slowdown financial collapse world recession global recession layoff job cut]

Pfizer to layoff 800 researchers

A Pfizer Inc. executive said as many as 800 researchers will be cut by the U.S.-based pharmaceutical company this year.

The Wall Street Journal said the job cuts, which would equal 5 percent to 8 percent of the company's 10,000 research employees, will be made at Pfizer's labs worldwide.

Martin Mackay, head of Pfizer's research and development, told the newspaper the cuts are part of a continuing effort to focus research work on treatments with the best chances of reaching the market.

The report said major drug makers are finding that in-house research is too costly.

"Nobody in the industry is happy with our productivity," Mackay said.

Source : UPI
[tags : recession bankrupt collapse retrenchment financial news collapse stagnation economic slowdown financial collapse world recession global recession layoff job cut]

Bristol-Myers Plans Additional 8,000 Layoffs

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said it will cut another 10% of its work force on top of a 10% reduction already under way, bringing its planned reductions to about 8,000 employees by 2010.

The New York-based drug maker said it expects to have cut 800 positions as part of the latest round of cuts by the end of the month. The company is continuing with its previous moves announced in July to eliminate 4,300 jobs.

After announcing the sale of a wound-care unit with 3,400 workers earlier this year, Bristol-Myers's world-wide work force numbered 37,000 in November.

Bristol-Myers, facing pressure like others in the drug industry from looming patent expirations and difficulty in finding new products, is seeking to reduce its costs by $2.5 billion by 2012.

The latest round of cuts will be broad and global, including researchers and sales employees, the company said. The cuts are "designed to help us address the challenges and uncertainties our company is facing in the short and long term," spokeswoman Sonia Choi said.

Bristol-Myers had a strong third quarter, thanks to solid sales of anticlotting agent Plavix, psychiatric drug Abilify and the cancer drug Erbitux, which it co-markets with ImClone Systems Inc. Plavix, co-marketed with Sanofi-Aventis, has brought the company more than $4 billion in sales this year but could face generic competition in the U.S. around 2011.

The company has decided to narrow the focus of its drug-development efforts and to focus on its core pharmaceutical business, selling its wound-care unit, Convatec, in May. It also plans to offer a partial initial public offering of its nutritionals business, Mead Johnson, in the first half of 2009.

Bristol failed in its attempt to buy ImClone earlier this fall. Instead, ImClone was acquired by Eli Lilly & Co., depriving Bristol of full ownership of Erbitux and other cancer compounds ImClone is developing. Last week, Bristol announced a $240 million partnership with Exelixis Inc. to co-develop cancer drugs.

In 4 p.m. composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, Bristol-Myers shares were unchanged at $22.50.

Source : WSJ
[tags : recession bankrupt collapse retrenchment financial news collapse stagnation economic slowdown financial collapse world recession global recession layoff job cut]

Elan to have 7% Job Cuts, Close Offices After Unit Sale Fails

Elan Corp., the Irish maker of medicines whose shares have fallen 66 percent this year, will cut 114 jobs and close its New York and Tokyo offices after the credit crunch ended the planned sale of the drug technology unit.

Ireland’s biggest drugmaker will eliminate about 7 percent of the workforce, resulting in as much as $25 million in cost savings per year, external spokeswoman Niamh Lyons said from Dublin, where the company is based. Elan said the cuts will free up funding to develop its treatments for Alzheimer’s.

Elan, maker of the Tysabri multiple sclerosis medicine, earlier this year shelved plans to sell its EDT drug technology division as global financial turmoil dried up financing opportunities. By the end of this month, Elan will have $450 million in cash and investments, Chief Executive Officer Kelly Martin said in October. The Irish company has $1.15 billion in debt coming due in 2011.

“That EDT sale would have put them in a nice cash position to develop their Alzheimer’s pipeline,” Goodbody Stockbrokers analyst Ian Hunter said in an interview. “They need to conserve as much cash as possible now.” Hunter estimates the EDT unit is valued from $1 billion to $1.3 billion.

Elan employs 1,700 workers, mostly in Ireland and San Francisco, Lyons said.

Elan fell 34 cents, or 6.3 percent, to 5.06 euros in Dublin trading. The stock is the worst performer of the 18-member Bloomberg Europe Pharmaceutical Index, which has fallen 18 percent this year.

Source : Bloomberg
[tags : recession bankrupt collapse retrenchment financial news collapse stagnation economic slowdown financial collapse world recession global recession layoff job cut]

GlaxoSmithKline to Cut 620 Jobs

GlaxoSmithKline has announced plans to cut 620 jobs at its Kent manufacturing site, blaming the "fiercely competitive environment" within the pharmaceutical industry.

The company said it will close the Dartford factory by 2013, because patents for its epilepsy drug Lamictal and herpes treatment Valtrex, which both account for 60pc of production at the site, are set to expire over the coming months.

The loss of patents mean that cheaper generic versions of the drugs can be manufactured by rival companies.

The closure of the plant is part of a £1.5bn cost-cutting program announced last year by the company to deliver annual pre-tax savings of up to £700m by 2010. The company said it has begun consulting with unions over the job losses, expected to be made over the next four years.

Production of newer products manufactured at the site will be transferred to other GlaxoSmithKline sites.

"The proposal is no reflection on the professionalism and commitment of Dartford employees, but that of the fiercely competitive environment in which the pharmaceutical industry operates," said Joe Foley, director of the Dartford site.

The announcement comes a week after the company revealed it was cutting 1,000 jobs or 12pc of its sales workforce in the United States.

Earlier this year, the firm announced that it was closing its Sussex site in 2011, with the loss of 493 jobs, and was cutting 330 jobs at its Ulverston factory in Cumbria.

The job losses follow similar cuts made by its rivals within the pharmaceutical industry, including German group Merck and US company Schering-Plough.

Source : Telegraph
[tags : recession bankrupt collapse retrenchment financial news collapse stagnation economic slowdown financial collapse world recession]

Astra Zeneca to cut 1400 Jobs

AstraZeneca, the UK's second largest pharmaceutical company, is to cut 1,400 global jobs in an effort to improve efficiency.

The company's site in Macclesfield will see 250 job losses by 2010, while facilities in Spain, Belgium and Sweden will close. Shares in AstraZeneca fell 4pc following the announcement.

David Smith, executive vice-president for operations, said: "I realise these changes are difficult for our affected employees, with whom we will be consulting in the coming months. We believe these changes are necessary for the long-term strength of the business.

"These moves are a continuation of AstraZeneca's programme to improve the organisation's productivity and efficiency. It moves the supply process closer to the customer, responding to their requirements and improving the security of the product wherever it is bought."

Just over 1,050 of the job cuts be will made by 2010 with the remainder, mainly positions in Sweden, made between 2010 and 2013. The restructuring relates to changes to AstraZeneca's global manufacturing and supply chain operations, which it hopes to make more efficient. The company will be investing more in its Wuxi plant in China as part of the move, an area of the world that helped AstraZeneca to announce a 29pc increase in profits last month.

The news comes a day after the company warned profits would be at the bottom end of expectations because of generic competition for its asthma drug pulmicort, which sent the shares down 11pc.

However, the company said today it had won a temporary restraining order against Teva Pharmaceutical Industries' generic alternative after it was approved by the FDA, the US equivalent of Nice, earlier this week.

The order will remain in place until January, when the a US court will decide on the validity of AstraZeneca's patent for pulmicort.

The company said its earnings per share forecast remained at $4.90 to $5.05 but that "actual performance within this range is dependent upon the performance of the business for the remainder of the year and further developments in the pulmicort situation, including the outcome of the preliminary injunction hearing on 25 November 2008".

Source : Telegraph
[tags : recession bankrupt collapse retrenchment financial news collapse stagnation economic slowdown financial collapse world recession]