Round and round big pharma cost-cutting goes, and where (and when) the layoffs stop, nobody knows. Merck & Co. wielded the sharpest axe in 2013, when it said October 1 it will eliminate 8,500 jobs worldwide by the end of 2015, as part of a restructuring that will include shrinking its real estate footprint in New Jersey and moving its headquarters within the Garden State.
Not far behind, AstraZeneca announced it was shedding an additional 3,900 additional jobs—2,300 selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) employees plus 1,600 R&D staffers. Those layoffs brought to 5,050—roughly 10% of the current workforce—the number of positions to be jettisoned through 2016. Also eliminating large numbers of jobs were Eli Lilly (1,245 U.S. sales reps due to expected patent-cliff revenue losses); Novartis (nearly 1,000 jobs at Ciba Vision, a consumer drugs plant in Lincoln, NE, and most recently 325 R&D staffers); and Endo Health Solutions (about 700 jobs, after failing to stop a generic version of its Opana ER [oxymorphone HCl] moderate-to-severe pain drug from reaching the market).
The biggest layoff wave not to occur was the 5,000-job elimination announced by Teva in October. Israeli officials reacted with thunderous criticism, and the company withdrew its plans some three weeks later—a factor speculated as leading to the CEO’s resignation.