The drugmaker indicated last month that a “global” program that would shrink most areas of its business. Yesterday, a TV station in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, where about 5,000 people work, primarily in research and manufacturing, reported an undisclosed number of layoffs has begun. And sources say a couple of hundred jobs in US headquarters in Philadelphia may be trimmed next week. We previously reported about 1,000 sales jobs would be eliminated shortly, although roughly half are supposedly already vacant.

“You can expect to hear from time to time that employees have been notified of job reductions as that program gets implemented in different parts of the business,” a Glaxo spokeswoman wrote us. “We are not confirming numbers or areas of the business where reductions are taking place. As is our practice, we are working to move people to different jobs in the company where skills are transferrable, and also to not fill vacant positions instead of losing people. Keep in mind that job reductions are only one element to the program; we are also investing in growth areas of the business as well.”

The TV station reported that about 100 people are likely to be laid off in North Carolina, where the asthma drug Advair is manufactured. Earlier this week, an FDA panel recommending more specific warnings for Advair and its Serevent drugs over potential health risks to children, although Glaxo disagreed with the decision. Already, Glaxo announced plans to shutter a manufacturing plant in Puerto Rico where Avandia is made and that employs 900 people.

Avandia is a big reason, of course, for the retrenchment. The diabetes pill, a $2.8 billion seller, has slumped severely ever since a study last May in The New England Journal of Medicine indicated the drug poses a 43 percent increased risk of heart attacks, prompting an FDA review that led to a Black Box warning.