What Drugs? Sanofi Battles Employees In France Over R&D Job Cuts

Teva Pharmaceuticals is not the only drugmaker facing stiff resistance this week among employees in its home country to planned layoffs. In France, Sanofi wants to shrink its R&D budget, but is encountering predictable levels of push back from both workers and the government, which is trying to preserve highly skilled workers and, of course, combat employment rates. The situation may erupt today, when talks begin with unions, which have called for lab workers to walk off the job throughout the week in protest. At stake, at least initially, are 186 job cuts in research and 453 transfers to other sites, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. Of course, the number of jobs involved is relatively small, but workers are trying to predict larger number of losses later, as well. As the news service notes, Sanofi has already cut research jobs in the UK and the US (back story) and now wants to regroup sites scattered across France into clusters around Paris, Lyon and Strasbourg, but the ability to do so is hampered somewhat by French labor laws. The drugmaker already scaled back plans announced last year to cut 2,000 jobs in France in order to eliminate $2.9 billion in expenses in order to cope with patent expirations on big-selling medicines (back story). The fate of a research center in Toulouse, where Sanofi employs around 600 people, is one battleground.  In May, Sanofi agreed to maintain a presence there for five years, but its memo says 230 jobs will be cut, despite ...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs