job cuts

Biovail cuts costs, hunts for acquisitions

Maureen Martino — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:51:15 -0500

With generic Wellbutrin XL competitors eating away at its profits, Canada's Biovail announced that the company could incur up to $100 million in restructuring charges over the next several quarters as the company shifts its focus to other opportunities. Three plants have already been shuttered and the company will pursue additional "efficiency enhancements" over the coming months. Third quarter revenue dropped to $181.1 million from $188.9 million. Earnings per share were 31 cents, down from 41 cents in 2007.

During a conference call CEO Bill Wells also said that the company is willing to cut its dividend if it means raising cash for another large acquisition. In September, Biovail paid $100 million for Prestwick Pharmaceuticals. That buyout, along with others planned in the future, are part of Biovail's plan to focus on central nervous system drugs. The company is investing $600 million over the next four years for work on epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's treatments.

"We're working on a number of different [acquisitions] and they range in size from the small, to one opportunity that is quite large and would accelerate our strategy by several years. Depending on [our] success... we may have to take another look at the dividend as we go forward," said Wells.

- here are Biovail's results
- read this CBC article
- see the Globe and Mail report on the acquisition

Drug researcher: Hard times ahead for drug discovery

John Carroll — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:02:01 -0400

Drug researcher and blogger Derek Lowe has some interesting thoughts on the future of drug discovery. With the easiest types of research projects headed overseas, U.S. researchers will be left to deal with the toughest jobs. And those jobs are increasingly being handled by smaller, risk-taking discovery companies. Big Pharma, meanwhile, is laying off more and more researchers as it continues to play it safe. And life won't get any easier for research scientists as the field undergoes a fundamental shift.

"Those of us trying to make a living through science and drug discovery are going to have to scramble for it," writes Lowe in "Hard Times: A Manifesto." "We're going to have to prove our worth to those who are in a position to pay for us, and we're going to have to try to make as many of our own opportunities as we can."

- read the blog

SPOTLIGHT: J&J chops jobs

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:59:53 -0400

With Procrit under siege, Johnson & Johnson wants to divert its promotional efforts elsewhere--a strategy that will lead to some 400 job cuts in its sales-and-marketing ranks. The company told employees it would consolidate sales-and-marketing operations of Ortho Biotech and Centocor and shave the payroll accordingly. Layoff report

U.S. R&D headcount tumbles in key categories

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 06:59:57 -0400

Pharmalot has been crunching the numbers for R&D jobs and concludes that the U.S. is seeing a considerable amount of shrinkage in the field. Looking at new numbers from PhRMA for 2006, R&D employment among its members dropped 3.9 percent. And there were a number of sizable reductions last year, with the axe expected to drop again over the course of 2008.

RPM concludes that the biggest cutbacks in R&D are occurring in the approval and post-marketing phases. The money spent on R&D in the U.S. continues to rise, but after an 11.3 percent hike in 2006 budgets rose only 2.7 percent to a still considerable $35.4 billion.

- read the report from Pharmalot
- see the PhRMA report (.pdf)

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SPOTLIGHT: Wyeth may cut 10% of jobs

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 06:59:53 -0500

Welcome Wyeth to the layoff parade. The drug maker is plotting cutbacks, including job cuts that could amount to 10 percent of its 50,000-person workforce. Report

In last act, PDL chief takes out the axe

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 06:59:58 -0400

Mark McDade has already announced that he's leaving his post as CEO of PDL BioPharma at the end of the year. And last night he revealed some very good reasons for hitting the exit. First, the company's late-stage therapy Nuvion, for ulcerative colitis, was axed after researchers harvested some discouraging efficacy data. PDL said in the same breath that it is putting its three approved drugs--Cardene, Retavase and Busulfex, all acquired in the ESP Pharma buyout two years ago--up for sale and is terminating 250 workers as it concentrates its development work on cancer and immunological diseases. A company spokesperson says that more layoffs are coming.

That could be seen as a vindication of sorts for Third Point, a big PDL investor which has directed a stream of scathing reviews McDade's way. An internal investigation has cleared McDade of Third Point's claim that McDade was incompetent and blowing the company's money, but he announced plans to resign soon nevertheless. With this kind of news to deliver, sooner may look a lot better than later.

- see PDL's release on the changes

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Sunesis pares staff in cost-cutting move

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 06:59:54 -0400

Sunesis Pharmaceuticals is paring 35 workers, or 25 percent of its staff, in an effort to pare out $10 million in costs. Research and general administrative areas will be cut the most as the developer concentrates on advancing its lead therapy, SNS-595 for leukemia and ovarian cancer. Sunesis had $65.2 million in cash on hand at the end of June.

- see the announcement on the cuts

FDA delay forces cutbacks at GPC Biotech

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 06:59:58 -0400

Struggling to overcome FDA hurdles for its cancer drug satraplatin, Germany's GPC Biotech says it will slash its staff by 15 percent and ratchet down research and development costs. An FDA advisory committee opted to delay approval until the company can deliver final data on patient survival, which GPC has estimated would take six months. To survive the delay, the biotech is handing out 46 pink slips among its 316 employees. GPC licensed satraplatin five years ago, agreeing to take on development and regulatory costs. As part of the restructuring, GPC says it will slow down--for a while anyway--its work on its 1D09C3 monoclonal antibody and cell cycle inhibitors.

As part of a planned succession, Dr. Martine George is succeeding Dr. Marcel Rozencweig as senior vice president of drug development and chief medical officer. Dr. Rozencweig will remain with the company in the new role of senior vice president, clinical science and drug evaluation.

- check out the release

Related Articles:
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What to do with Avandia sales force?

Maureen Martino — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:25:15 -0400

GlaxoSmithKline may cut or redeploy its Avandia sales force in the wake of safety concerns that have virtually destroyed the drugs sales. Avandia is GSK’s second bestselling drug, earning £1.4 billion (about $2.8 billion) in 2006. Earlier this year, a New England Journal of Medicine study caused a uproar when it pointed to previously undisclosed safety risks associated with the diabetes drug. However, an expert committee of the FDA recommended by an overwhelming margin that Avandia should stay on the market with heightened warnings regarding its risks.

According to the Times, “A spokewsoman for GSK said the company was in ‘wait-and-see mode’ ahead of a final decision from the FDA but said that it was normal for the group to appraise regularly its allocation of staff and resources.” Given the GSK has a number of drug in the pipeline, the company may choose to redeploy salespeople on new drugs rather than cut them loose entirely.

- see this article for more

More cuts at troubled Point Therapeutics

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:59:55 -0400

The troubles at Point Therapeutics continue as the company announced today that it made major cuts to its management team. On the chopping block were Donald Kiepert, Chairman and CEO; Richard Small, Senior Vice President and CFO; Michael Duffy, Senior Vice President and General Counsel; and Barry Jones, PhD., Senior Vice President and CSO. In May the Boston-based company announced that it would cut its work force by 60 percent after the FDA put a hold on Point's failed lead drug development program.

- see Point's release on the cuts

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More bad news for Point Therapeutics. Report
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AstraZeneca cuts 7,600 jobs

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 06:59:58 -0400

Never willing to sit idle, AstraZeneca is whacking 7,600 workers off the payroll as it steps up its restructuring plans. That amounts to 11 percent of its work force. Determined to find $900 million in savings by 2010, CEO David Brennan says these cuts would hit the company's European sales and marketing operations along with R&D in a variety of countries around the globe. The cuts were announced with a second quarter earnings report that analysts regard as more evidence of a fundamentally strong company. It should be interesting to see how the other big pharma companies react to this news. Eager to earn Wall Street kudos, more may follow the same path.

- see this excerpt from AstraZeneca's quarterly report
- read the article from the International Herald Tribune

ALSO: AstraZeneca likes to talk about the expanded pipeline it gained by buying MedImmune, but some hefty restructuring costs have forced the pharma giant to cut its financial guidance. Report

Related Articles:
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Aspreva cuts a quarter of its jobs as it refocuses

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 06:59:57 -0400

Canada's Aspreva Pharmaceuticals says that Chief Scientific Officer Richard Jones is leaving the company as the biotech cuts 33 jobs, or about a quarter of its work force. Company officials say they want to concentrate on their core functions. Aspreva recently completed a late-stage trial for an experimental therapy for myasthenia gravis and another trial for a treatment of lupus nephritis. Aspreva says it remains committed to a pact it has with Roche.

- see the release
- here's the report from Canada East

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