With sales of its heart drug Natrecor hampered by reports of safety concerns, Johnson & Johnson announced that about 150 of Scios' 900 employees will receive pink slips. Sales and marketing workers will be among the most heavily hit, along with employees in the unit's Fremont, CA headquarters. Sales peaked in 2004 at $400 million but began to slide as medical experts raised possible links to kidney problems and death. The Justice Department is also looking at whether Scios improperly marketed the drug for an unapproved use. The company has denied any illegal off-label promotions. Johnson & Johnson paid $2.4 billion for the drug about three years ago.
- here's the report [1] from The New York Times for more
Links:
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/24/business/24scios.html