SkyePharma cuts staff at French and Swiss facilities

pharmafile | May 20, 2009 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing Skyepharma 

SkyePharma has moved ahead with plans to cut its workforce at a manufacturing plant in France by a third as part of its continuing programme of cost reductions.

In its interim statement released yesterday, the drug delivery specialist said it has also cut headcount at its R&D facility in Muttenz, Switzerland, by 10%.

"The level of operating costs continues to be controlled, with appropriate action being taken where necessary," said SkyePharma chief executive Dr Ken Cunningham in a statement.

The plan will be implemented shortly and is expected to save operating costs of around £1.5 million a year. An exceptional charge of approximately £2.0 million will be booked in SkyePharma's first-half figures.

SkyePharma saw its sales leap ahead almost 50% last year on the back of growing revenues from new products such as AstraZeneca's asthma drug Pulmicort (budesonide) HFA-MDI, First Horizon's hypertension drug Sular (nisoldipine) and GlaxoSmithKline's Requip (ropinirole) Once-a-Day for Parkinson's disease.

However, some of the company's clients are facing patent expirations on some big earners – notably GSK's antidepressant Paxil CR (paroxetine) and Sciele Pharma's lipid disorder treatment Triglide (fenofibrate) – which will peg back growth this year.

SkyePharma's cost-control efforts are designed to offset the impact of patent expiries while it waits for US approval of Flutiform (fluticasone and formoterol), a combination asthma treatment which it believes could take the group to another level in revenue terms.

The French manufacturing facility, based in Lyon, currently employs more than 120 staff and is focused on manufacturing tablets based on SkyePharma's Geomatrix solid oral dose technology.

SkyePharma said in March that the decision to downsize came about because its Geomatrix customers tend to manufacture their products in-house.

Another factor is that a filling line for dry powder inhaler products – set up to service a contract to supply Novartis with its Foradil Certihaler (formoterol fumarate) asthma product – is currently standing idle as the contract was terminated in December 2008.

In its statement, SkyePharma said that "separate discussions continue to be held with Novartis and a subcontractor with a view to agreeing what amounts are receivable from Novartis and payable to the subcontractor by the group during the two-year termination and wind-down period".

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