Pfizer Inc., the world’s biggest drug company, is laying off up to 800 scientists this year in its latest effort to refocus disappointing research efforts and cut its massive overhead ahead of an anticipated crash in revenue.
New York-based Pfizer plans to reduce its global research staff of about 10,000 people by 5 percent to 8 percent this year, company spokeswoman Kristen Neese said today.
“This is in line with our refocused research areas,” Neese said.
Pfizer’s research and development headquarters are in New London and Groton.
The move comes after the company announced in September it was narrowing its research focus to six disease areas — Alzheimer’s, cancer, schizophrenia, pain, inflammation and diabetes — and abandoning new research in other areas. Where possible, researchers were shifted from other areas into the six new core areas, Neese said.
Surprisingly, one of the areas abandoned was cardiovascular disease, where Pfizer had been a dominant player with its $13 billion-a-year cholesterol fighter Lipitor, the world’s top-selling drug. But Lipitor — which brings in just over one-fourth of Pfizer’s roughly $50 billion in annual revenue — is expected to face generic competition in late 2011. Efforts to come up with a successor drug failed, including the flameout of once-promising torcetrapib after it was linked to heart problems in late-stage human testing.
Already, Lipitor sales have dipped slightly, apparently partly due to consumers trying a much-cheaper generic form of a similar drug, Zocor.
Firing scientists “is exactly the wrong thing to do,” said analyst Steve Brozak of WBB Securities. “With this step that they’ve taken, either they acquire, are acquired or fail.
Another analyst said more cuts are likely.
“This is probably not the end,” said biopharmaceuticals analyst Erik Gordon, a professor at University of Michigan Business School.
He said Pfizer likely has identified 500 to 800 scientists not in the new core areas in its first round of review, but more could be cut later.
Also last fall, Pfizer said it was reorganizing its business units, including replacing its current geographic divisions with new ones centered on primary care, specialty care and operations in emerging markets.
Under a major restructuring begun in January 2007, Pfizer has eliminated roughly 14,600 jobs, leaving about 83,400 workers, and closed eight plants or other sites.
