BMS denies further 10% staff cut

pharmafile | January 2, 2009 | News story | Sales and Marketing BMS, restructure 

Bristol Myers Squibb has denied claims it is making a further 10% reduction to its work force, and said any new reported cuts are still part of the same cost saving plan it announced a year ago.

Several articles – triggered by a Reuters report – said BMS was to expand its plan to downsize and cut its global workforce by an extra 10% before 2010, on top of the first 10% cut it announced in December 2007.

But BMS said it has long planned all redundancies ahead in order to reduce costs and offset patent expiries on drugs, and allegations it was making fresh cuts were false.

Patrice Grand from BMS' international communications department said: "There is no new news. It is what we always planned. The head count reduction taking place is part of the plan announced last year."

The first 10% reduction announced in December 2007 represented 4,300 jobs, and was forecast to make savings of up to $1.5 billion by 2010.

Then in July 2008 the company expanded its cost-savings plan to achieve an extra $1 billion in savings by 2012, through 'unspecified actions', without mention of additional cuts.

The claims of additional cuts were seemingly prompted by news in the US in December that 800 filled or vacant positions would go before the end of 2008, and a comment from US spokeswoman Sonia Choi.

She was quoted as saying: "As part of the expansion of our productivity initiative announced in July, the goal is another 10% cut in our global workforce, with those headcount reductions continuing through 2010."

But Grand maintained there was 'nothing additional' to the original plan, which will see redundancies come from all over the global group.

The company will lose patent protection on its blockbuster Plavix, which it co-markets with Sanofi-Aventis, in 2011. BMS stands to lose around $3 billion in annual revenues but doesn't have an equally heavy-hitting product lined up to replace it.

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