Amgen To Lay Off Nearly 400 Employees
October 20th, 2011 // 3:00 pm @ jmpickett
A short while ago we wrote how Amgen hired away an exec from Bristol-Myers Squibb as part of its reorganization. Well, some additional news is now coming in and the biotech is eliminating several hundreds of jobs from its workforce, which currently number about 17,600 worldwide.
As noted last week, the biotech indicated to its employees that a major reorganization was in the works (see here). Such a move would mimic what many big drugmakers have been doing in recent years as they attempt to lower their costs and seek the next big-selling molecule elsewhere. An Amgen spokeswoman confirmed that a layoff announcement is imminent, but declined to confirm numbers that were provided us by different sources.
The layoffs come amid an overhaul of the global marketing department, which involved hiring Tony Hooper from Bristol-Myers Squibb, and are expected to reshape R&D as well, where less emphasis is expected to be placed on discovery efforts. UPDATE: The Amgen spokeswoman writes us that the R&D overhaul is not an ‘across-the-board’ reduction, but will affect different sites.
About 225 jobs will be eliminated from the Thousand Oaks, California, headquarters, as well as in Seattle, San Francisco, Boston and various locations in the UK.
The move comes as Amgen struggles to overcome disappointing sales with its new Prolia osteoporosis med, one of two new drugs the biotech is counting on for future growth. Through the first six months of its fiscal year, Prolia sales were just $71 million. Meanwhile, Amgen generated $15.1 billion in revenue during its last fiscal year and spent $2.9 billion, or about 19 percent, on R&D.
Source: Pharmalot
