Pfizer To Layoff More Scientists In The Fall?
10 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // July 2nd, 2008 // 4:04 pm
That’s the scuttlebutt making the rounds and also dutifully noted on In The Pipeline today. The drugmaker, which continues to grapple with a thin pipeline and looming patent expirations, is believed to be targeting chemists at its main R&D facility in Groton, Connecticut.
Of course, by eliminating the employees who are chartered with finding and developing drugs, Pfizer may just lessen the chance that its own R&D team will find the next big thing and end its troubles. This is, however, part of a trend we have noted previously. Total US employment in R&D fell by 3.9 percent in 2006, the last year for which data was available, to 79,856, according to PhRMA.
So what might this mean? Perhaps it signals an intention to buy other, smaller companies. Glaxo took such a step recently by cutting 40 percent of its research staff at some sites, just as a deal was announced to pay $720 million for Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, which is developing a fountain-of-youth pill. This comes down to betting more on someone else’s science than your own.
We asked Pfizer for a comment and will update you when one arrives. UPDATE: A Pfizer spokesman sent us this comment: “A leading R&D organization must evolve, continue to build on its strengths, capture competitive advantage wherever possible and be realistic about what it will take to return Pfizer to growth. What I can assure you is that if and when there are organizational changes, those decisions are never taken lightly. Our guiding principle is that colleagues hear about important Pfizer news from company leadership first and are treated with the utmost respect.”
Atlex
I’ll challenge your statement that “by eliminating the employees who are chartered with finding and developing drugs, Pfizer may just lessen the chance that its own R&D team will find the next big thing and end its troubles.” One could just as easily argue that by selectively eliminating research in the areas that have a low likelihood of payoff, Pfizer actually increases the chances that it will “find the next big thing.” If this comes to pass, it could eliminate waste and allow greater resources (not just human, but other resources) to be put into the highest priority projects, thus speeding them to market.
snug
Ed, a true appreciation of what the Pfizer spokesman said: R&D officially you are fired
Ed Silverman
Hi Atlex,
Fair point. Setting priorities is the rationale for cutting most any department at any company, of course. And perhaps that will be proven true. But that’s why I used the word ‘may’ in writing what I did.
Regards
ed
CMC guy
I concur with snug that Pfizer R&D people should be concerned.
Atlex I think you are assuming a logical and critical evaluation approach to optimizing R&D. Based on what I have observed by Pfizer has not been a good judge in this area (PD/WL was a strong center prior to merger). Assume it will be internal politics and money (projections) that will rule the day that likely sacrifice short term for longer term potential.
Salmon
So what happens when scientists leave Pfizer?
Why they can always join FDA under Andy’s current hiring initiative. That is, if they have a good referral from Pfizer.
In fact they may even wind up working for some of their old colleagues who ’serendipitously’ left Pfizer for FDA a year or two ago and have now moved up into management, above all those pesky bureaucrats, who just annoy drug companies with their outdated way of doing things, that Peter Pitts has been complaining about recently.
Why if they’ve got really good recomendations they may even wind up working directly with those ex-Industry VPs that Rosa DeLauro pointed out in her letter to Andy last November.
Salmon
Bruce Grant
If, as Derek Lowe reported yesterday, the cuts extend beyond chem to biology as well — and they go down to the PhD and Associate level, not just department heads — this is not merely eliminating waste and focusing on high-priority projects. It’s more like eating next season’s seed corn.
BTW, Pfizer’s response to you is a fabulous example of what Woodward & Bernstein first dubbed “non-denial denials” while reporting Watergate.
Mr. PFE
The funny bit is that Pfizer at least replied to your request. When we the employees ask these kinds of questions - stony silence is the only thing we get.
Utmost respect for people must go hand in hand with reduced severance packages and indiscriminate layoffs. Pfizer has long lost the ability do judge which R&D areas are ‘hot’ and which could be reduced, which is why it is relying on 3-year-old data to make these kinds of decisions.
All I know is that a lot of good scientists (and probably a handful of lame ones) will lose their jobs, again. Some of them will lose jobs for the second time in less than two years (Ann Arbor expatriates). There is no hope for employment in pharma any more.
RobS
Are Pfizer employees being forced to train their H-1B replacements?
There are rumors that Pfizer employers are being required to train foreign workers on H-1B visas. These foreign workers will replace the Americans who trained them.
Sadly this isn’t an uncommon practice, and unfortunately it’s not illegal, despite the myths that have been propagated by shills and paid lobbyists that Americans have protections against this global labor arbitrage.
Does anyone associated with Pfizer know what is going on there? Are qualified American workers training their foreign replacements? If you have credible information to confirm or deny this please go to my website to find out how to contact me, or leave a comment on this thread.
Christopher
I don’t know the specifics of this case but the implication is that foreign workers are ‘taking jobs away’ from Americans in America somehow unjustly. The H-1B visa isn’t easily obtained. It is for talented and skilled workers with relevant experience that are newly employed by a company, rather than an internal transferee. They are possibly lower paid than the ones they replace - presumably that’s RobS’s theme - but will be on a local package. New ‘H-1B’ workers are always going to be trained by the staff in the US, the majority of whom are Americans, unless of course there are only other H-1B staff left.
So I’m saying there’s nothing new in this process which has been going on for years.
INSIDER
I have learned to that Pfizer will be laying off all 30,000 Contractors as of 12.31.08. All will be offered permanant positions at below market rate!
Just finished a con-call with Procurement and it is 100% true. It has not hit the wire yet !