Sanofi plans R&D jobs cuts in France
pharmafile | February 3, 2016 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Research and Development | Sanofi, Teva, cuts, job losses, olivier brandicourt, redundancies
Sanofi chief executive Olivier Brandicourt is reported to be planning hundreds of job cuts across the firm’s base in France, as he pushes ahead with a global restructure of the company.
Bloomberg reports that Sanofi has told French labour unions that it plans to make up to 600 job losses, in the form of voluntary redundancies.
Sanofi employs 27,000 people in France – a quarter of its 110,000-strong global workforce – but says the cuts won’t have any impact on R&D. The cuts also don’t apply to the Merial animal health unit, which is being swapped with Boehringer Ingelheim in exchange for the German firm’s consumer-health operations.
Thierry Bodin, a Sanofi union representative, told Bloomberg that a further 300 R&D positions that were to be filled in France will be eliminated – in addition to the 600 announced losses. Of these 600 job cuts, more than 100 are corporate jobs, affecting central and support functions, and 155 positions are in the company’s commercial operations division, Bodin said.
Sanofi boss Brandicourt is attempting to implement a broad reorganisation to streamline the large French drug maker. The company plans to make $1.8 billion in cost savings by 2018 and has reorganised itself into five new business units as of January 2016: general medicines and emerging markets, specialty care, diabetes and cardiovascular, vaccines division Sanofi Pasteur, and the animal health division Merial.
Teva UK cuts
Meanwhile in the UK, generic drug maker Teva is planning to axe up to 80 jobs at a manufacturing plant in the North West of England – but says it plans to add some more specialised positions at the same site.
The Israeli firm plans to downsize a plant in Runcorn, Cheshire, losing 80 jobs while creating 20. The site has around 400 employees in total. The Runcorn facility manufactures sterile products for treatment of respiratory conditions, and also produces multiple sclerosis medicines, with most exported to the US.
Denise Bradley, Teva’s senior vice president of global corporate reputation, said in a statement that said the changes at the plant are part of a long-term plan to “ensure the future sustainability of the site” by improving the technical expertise of employees. She added the plant is “increasing the number of specialist roles in order to support the greater use of technology and automation now required in complex drug process development and manufacture.”
Lilian Anekwe
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