By Andrew PollackPublished: January 23, 2007
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NEW YORK: The drug giant Pfizer said Monday that it would lay off 10,000 workers and close several manufacturing and research sites in an effort to bolster earnings hurt by the loss of patent protection on certain drugs and setbacks in developing new products.
The company said that the employee reductions were equivalent to about 10 percent of its total work force and would take place by the end of next year.
"Pfizer is a great company with a great future," Jeffrey Kindler, chief executive of the company, said in a statement. "We are facing significant challenges, however, in a profoundly changing business environment. I believe we must fundamentally change the way we run our company to meet these challenges and to take advantage of the diverse and attractive opportunities we see in the marketplace."
Pfizer said that the cuts would save $1.5 billion to $2 billion a year in pretax expenses.
Pharmaceutical industry analysts have generally been welcoming cutbacks by Pfizer but have said that while cost-cutting is beneficial, the company needs to resume growth by bringing new products to market.
Sales of Lipitor, the cholesterol fighter that is the world's best-selling pharmaceutical, were at $3.34 billion in the fourth quarter, a decline of one percent. Sales for the year were $12.89 billion, up 6 percent. Lipitor sales were hurt because Merck's competing statin, Zocor, lost patent protection last year, opening the market to generics.
So, u can see how grey in my world!!
