The bad news coming out of Pfizer just keeps coming. Not a particularly good time to be a scientist, after having invested in so many years of study and research...
Or a medical rep.
Or a pharma CEO.
The healthcare industry is running out of promising careers at this rate. Which is a shame, because they have been one of the highest net job creators for a long, long time.
AP reports a fresh round of job cuts, this time affecting scientists in its 'non-core' areas. The company had earlier announced it would now focus on 6 disease states - Alzheimer's, cancer, schizophrenia, pain, inflammation and diabetes and abandon all other research areas.
One of the areas abandoned is cardiovascular diseases - Lipitor, Pfizer's 13 Billion USD bestseller has already seen revenues dip and it remains to be seen whether Pfizer can somehow fill a gaping hole in its revenues which will start to kick in well before 2011, when Lipitor comes off patent.
Jeff Kindler, their CEO has already gone out on a limb by stating that he is looking for acquisitions which will impact earnings positively, but given Roche's Genentech bid setting a trend in the new year, such acquisitions will not come cheap - recession or not.
Research areas that Pfizer is exiting include anemia, bone health, gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, liver disease, osteoarthritis and peripheral artery disease -
Read the complete story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/13/AR2009011301300.html
- oRiOn
Showing posts with label layoffs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label layoffs. Show all posts
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Job Cuts at Bristol Myers Squibb
David Moscovitz, an analyst with Caris and Co. probably sums it up best when he says "Unfortunately, for drug companies it's come down to trying to reduce costs in reaction to difficulty they're having developing and successfully launching new products, and also dealing with generic competition in a healthcare system that values cost management more than innovation."
Reuters reported recently that BMS plans to further trim its global workforce by 10% - this is on top of the 10% reduction announced in Dec 2007.
Lemme see if I've got my math right - 90% of 90 % = 19% of BMS staffers are in the job market soon-ish.
For a company that employed 43,000 before the 2007 announcement, thats quite a significant number.
Here's the Reuters story (http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE4BF7KL20081216)
- oRiOn
Reuters reported recently that BMS plans to further trim its global workforce by 10% - this is on top of the 10% reduction announced in Dec 2007.
Lemme see if I've got my math right - 90% of 90 % = 19% of BMS staffers are in the job market soon-ish.
For a company that employed 43,000 before the 2007 announcement, thats quite a significant number.
Here's the Reuters story (http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE4BF7KL20081216)
- oRiOn
Pfizer's Woes Highlighted
Derek Lowe, in a November post on his blog about pharma pipelines - (http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2008/11/03/pfizer_strategy_layoffs_and_money.php) highlights a statement made by Jeff Kindler, Pfizer's CEO in an interview with FT.
'We're facing a very significant loss of exclusivity in Lipitor at the end of 2011. We have a clear plan for positioning the company for strong, profitable growth after that. That plan consists of pursuing significant new opportunities for increased revenues starting with our internal pipeline, getting further growth out of our existing products, growing in the emerging markets, growing our business on off-patent products. We sell billions of dollars of off-patent products and in many parts of the world that's the most important opportunity to meet unmet medical needs and looking for other potential sources of revenues.'
Judge for yourself - but it isn't exactly the kind of comment which would inspire confidence in the investor community. Pfizer's stock hasn't exactly been a shining star in recent times - and its obvious from some of the comments to Derek's post that folks out there are very sceptical about Pfizer's ability to generate profits from 'internal pipelines' or generics, where they face stiff competition from low-cost manufacturers.
And of course, the layoffs continue at Pfizer... despite statements to the contrary issued by official sources in the know, the fact that the severance-package program (due to expire end 2008) has been extended to mid-2009. All of this on top of the 10,000 job cuts and plant closures announced in Jan 2007 (http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/pfizer-cuts-10000-jobs/2007-01-22). There's been a lot of chatter on pharma blogs about this, especially on Pharmalot - but its clear that these are trying times indeed for Pfizer, once the darling of investors.
-oRiOn
'We're facing a very significant loss of exclusivity in Lipitor at the end of 2011. We have a clear plan for positioning the company for strong, profitable growth after that. That plan consists of pursuing significant new opportunities for increased revenues starting with our internal pipeline, getting further growth out of our existing products, growing in the emerging markets, growing our business on off-patent products. We sell billions of dollars of off-patent products and in many parts of the world that's the most important opportunity to meet unmet medical needs and looking for other potential sources of revenues.'
Judge for yourself - but it isn't exactly the kind of comment which would inspire confidence in the investor community. Pfizer's stock hasn't exactly been a shining star in recent times - and its obvious from some of the comments to Derek's post that folks out there are very sceptical about Pfizer's ability to generate profits from 'internal pipelines' or generics, where they face stiff competition from low-cost manufacturers.
And of course, the layoffs continue at Pfizer... despite statements to the contrary issued by official sources in the know, the fact that the severance-package program (due to expire end 2008) has been extended to mid-2009. All of this on top of the 10,000 job cuts and plant closures announced in Jan 2007 (http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/pfizer-cuts-10000-jobs/2007-01-22). There's been a lot of chatter on pharma blogs about this, especially on Pharmalot - but its clear that these are trying times indeed for Pfizer, once the darling of investors.
-oRiOn
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