Amgen May Layoff 15 Percent Of Its Workforce
8 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // August 9th, 2007 // 2:43 pm
This really isn’t surprising. The drugmaker has suffered blow after blow this year - the FDA issued strict warnings on its key products, Aranesp and Epogen. Congress is investigating the marketing and safety of these drugs. The Securities and Exchange Commission is probing its failure to tell Wall Street that a key clinical trial ended over safety concerns, which only became known after an industry newsletter published the details. Medicare reduced reimbursement. And the stock is near a 52-week low.
Through it all, Kevin Sharer (pictured above) has insisted Amgen doesn’t face a crisis. But word has finally leaked out that Sharer is crying uncle. Last week, Sharer left a general message to employees on Amgen’s voicemail system indicating there may be upcoming changes, according to a report in The Los Angeles Times, which today says that, while plans haven’t been finalized, Amgen is expected to announce cutbacks over the next several weeks. The paper cites three unnamed sources.
For the record, Amgen says layoff talk is premature. “We have made no announcements regarding staff reductions,” says Amgen spokesman David Polk. But Amgen has already delayed plans for a new $1 billion plant in Ireland and has slowed manufacturing operations elsewhere. Many contractors and temporary workers have left the company in recent months and employee overtime has been curtailed, the paper writes.
Telltale signs: Howie Neftin, who owns nearby Neftin Westlake Car, tells the paper two Amgen employees recently canceled orders for matching Volvo S40s, valued at more than $30,000 each. And Hyo Shin, owner of Ventu Park dry cleaners on the edge of Amgen’s main campus in Thousand Oaks, Calif., says sales fell 15% in July compared with a year earlier, and estimates a third of his business comes from Amgen employees. “People who used to bring in $200 a month are dropping off $150 instead.”
Chris
After staff hear the voicemail from the boss the dry cleaner will be back in business in no time at all.
Steve Woodruff
Let’s see…we have an auto dealer and a dry cleaner - who’s the third unnamed source? Oh, wait, those guys gave their names…perhaps it was a limo driver, a plant waterer, and an I.T. intern…
Ed Silverman
Hey Steve,
Well, there was a Good Humor ice cream man, but he wouldn’t give his name and drove away rapidly, chocolate fudge dripping out the back of his truck…. :)
ed
Peter
Everyone at Amgen is in denial. The last drug discovered by the crackerjack R & D group at Amgen was Epo and that was in the 80’s.
Recent purchases have yielded no meaningful results. Competing with Big Pharma in the small molecule area was the epitome of arrogance.
Chris
Peter, that’s an interesting point. I think I heard once that Epo was discovered at an academic center and licensed by Amgen. Could that be true or am I confusing it with another case?
tks
Spectator Physician
Peter, Amgen didn’t even “discover” EPO. Isolation and early clinical testing of the compound was originally performed by Goldwasser et al in the late ’60s/early ’70s at the U of Chicago. However, according to the book “The $800 Million Pill,” Goldwasser didn’t patent his work.
Dr. Mike
Not unexpected is the obfuscation and long-term denial of the coming layoffs. Can anyone tell me what this current leadership team at Amgen has done besides line their pockets? And be about as arrogant as they come? I am sure that there are some fine people working there who are pretty much like everybody else in the Thousand Oaks area. Too bad they couldn’t get any leadership to help them out. Man, sounds like the same problem from D. C. on down the line.
Bill
Hey Steve Woodruff and Ed Silverman, I imagine you heard Amgen’s 15AUG2007 announcement? Perhaps employees’ changing purchase patterns can be telltales of their employer’s imminent actions.