More Pharma Jobs Are Disappearing: Forest And Eisai Cut Back

Yet another round of cutbacks in the pharmaceutical industry is unfolding. The latest to shrink operations is Forest Laboratories, which is slashing expenses by $500 million over the next three years in what its new ceo Brent Saunders is calling Project Rejuvenate. Of that, $270 million will come from R&D, $150 million targets marketing and $80 million would come from general and administrative expenses (here is the statement). Looked at another way, $110 million in savings will come from layoffs, which are expected to number about 500 positions, although the sales force and employees with "key responsibility" for submitting late-stage drugs to the FDA for approval are excluded. The cutback comes after Forest (FRX) has struggled to compensate for the loss of patent protection on such big-selling drugs as the Lexapro antidepressant and attempted to reinvent itself in the wake of a nasty proxy battle with Carl Icahn. The long-running drama effectively ended the tenure of former ceo Howard Solomon, who had run the drugmaker since 1997 and was 86 when he retired. Saunders, a protege of former Schering-Plough ceo Fred Hassan, was hired three months ago, although he had been a Forest director for the past two years and was ceo at Bausch + Lomb and became available after the eye-care company was purchased by Valeant Pharmaceuticals for $8.7 billion a few months ago (back story). He received his first setback two weeks ago, though, when the FDA issued a complete response letter f...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs