Pfizer cuts 10,000 jobs

Pfizer has just announced deep new cuts aimed at reducing $2 billion in annual costs. To do that, the pharma giant is closing three research centers in Michigan and two manufacturing plants while laying off 10,000 workers--roughly 10 percent of its worldwide workforce. The company says it may also sell a manufacturing facility in Germany and research operations in Japan and France. Pfizer is faced with the loss of 41 percent of its revenue to generic competitors between 2010 and 2012. And after the recent loss of its Torcetrapib program, some analysts speculated [1] that the pharma giant would be forced to cut jobs.

For more:
- check out the company's press release [2] on the cuts
- here's the New York Times article [3]

PLUS: Pfizer is reporting that its pain drug Lyrica entered the ranks of blockbuster therapies last year, earning $1.2 billion. Launched in 2005, analysts had originally expected Lyrica to top out at about $500 million a year. Pfizer now feels that it can do even better as it seeks FDA approval to market Lyrica as a treatment for fibromyalgia. Pfizer earned $9.45 billion in the fourth quarter, a figure that was greatly swelled by the sale of its consumer division. Report [4]

Related Articles:
Pfizer halts Torcetrapib development. Report [5]
CEO McKinnell gets the boot as Pfizer struggles. Report [6]