Schering-Plough Bloodletting Begins This Week
8 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // June 11th, 2008 // 3:07 pm
The first round in the big job cuts announced in early April are getting under way, according to a couple of sources. You may recall that ceo Fred Hassan, in response to the collapse in Vytorin and Zetia scrips, trumpeted plans to cut 10 percent of the drugmaker’s workforce of 55,000 in order to save up to $1.5 billion by 2012, although most would occur by 2010.
We do not have precise numbers yet, but we are told they will be sizeable and far-reaching, given that the ultimate goal is to eliminate about 5,500 positions. In making his April announcement, Fred vowed to consolidate management; use more shared staff support and services; reduce travel; cut sales and marketing; slash R&D; consolidate product lines, particularly in the animal health unit; and close some of the 60 manufacturing plants. These are in addition to the 400 jobs cut following the recent acquisition of Organon Biosciences.
A Schering-Plough spokesman tells us this: “We do expect to be announcing (job) actions later this week - as we had previously told our Schering-Plough colleagues - and we will not be commenting further until we have told our own people.”
Bruce
Wow. I am having a flashback to my Pharmacia days….
SP 2
Just like Fred the Terrible! He and his cronies makes the stupid mistakes, then the employees pay with their jobs! In the meantime, he takes millions for doing such a good job. he’s always been about cost cutting to increase profits. Cut any fat, slice away the muscle, scrape the bone, they slay the workers!
Insider
Is this Big Pinata’s worst week?
Sanofi Aventis, GSK and SP…..
CB
Fred Hassan and Carrie Cox - should also be known as the Bonnie and Clyde of Big Pharma. What’s happening at Schering-Plough happened at Pharmacia when they were in charge there. Cut, cut, cut, cut and cut until there is no more to cut. When you’re out of things to cut, then just cast employees to the wind. Disgusting, but common, behavior these days in corporate America. Capitalism run wild! Up with the company, down with the employees. Forget about the future and focus only on the present quarter.
Big Pharma Guy
This sort of action has become all too common in the industry. Consolidate, trim, cut back, reduce force - whatever you call it - hardworking people lose their jobs while the fat cats protect theirs. Slash R & D, get rid of reps, can the scientists and the physicians, but keep all the MBAs! What an industry!
Lori
Boy, I feel like I’ve seen this movie before. Next comes the scene where there’s no more that Fred and Company can cut, so they’ll prepare for a sell-out. Fred escapes on his golden parachute and moves on to “save” his next pharma company. I have considered just following him around the industry and paying for my kids’ education by collecting severence packages.
Mark
There were several articles about Schering and several other companies. Were there any totals for all the companies?
Ed Silverman
Hi Mark,
I last ran a layoff tally in April and here is the link to that post…
http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/04/where-the-jobs-arent-the-latest-layoff-tally/
I’ve not updated it since then, but I would imagine this is still fairly current for most companies, although I recall Glaxo cut more research jobs and Merck announced plans to slash 1,200 sales reps.
In any event, I hope this helps,
ed