The wave of layoffs in the pharmaceutical industry is on the rise again.
/p> In recent years, it is not uncommon for pharmaceutical companies to significantly adjust their framework and lay off staff. In 2022, due to industry shocks and other factors, many well-known multinational pharmaceutical companies will also have news of layoffs, including some executives.
Not long ago, multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis “will cut thousands of jobs due to the merger of pharmaceutical and oncology businesses” news has aroused widespread concern in the industry. In addition, Merck plans to lay off a group of Acceleron employees, which may affect 143 people; Gilead will lay off 114 employees at the former immunology headquarters; New Zealand pharmaceutical company announced that it will lay off 90% of US employees; Bluebird Bio plans to lay off 30% of staff…
00< data- title="">1The core drug encounters setbacks, and pharmaceutical companies lay off staff to save moneyDue to setbacks in drug development or regulation, a batch of drugs Enterprises are in a situation where they have to lay off staff and restructure.
For example, due to the continuous turmoil of the core product Alzheimer’s disease drug Aduhelm, it has encountered a series of negative effects such as setbacks in important markets, restricted use, and dismal sales performance. Influence, in March this year, Biogenannounced the cancellation of the Aduhelm commercialization team and layoffs of some employees in the United States. At the same time, Biogen is also planning to significantly reduce Aduhelm’s related business infrastructure.
Biogen estimates that cost reduction measures will save the company $500 million annually Total cost savings target of $1 billion.
Coincidentally,this April,Bluebird Creature said that due to multiple R&D, regulatory and commercial setbacks, in order to maintain business development and cut costs, plans to lay off 30% of its workforce in order to extend its cash flow to the first half of 2023 strong>.
There are many similar situations. According to incomplete statistics, many biopharmaceutical companies have experienced similar situations this year, as follows:
◇In January, BeyondSpring cut 35% of its workforce after the FDA rejected its drug plinabulin for chemotherapy-induced neutropenia American employees.
◇In January, due to stopping work on a planned phase 2 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease trial, And terminated the agreement with the COPD Foundation, KaleidoBiosciences layoffs.
◇In January, Spectrum Therapeutics announced 30 job cuts based on FDA rejection of its neutropenic drug candidate Rolontis % to conserve cash flow and focus on mid- to late-stage cancer drugs.
◇In February, after the NASH-related trial failed last year, Metacrine ended a trial targeting fatty liver disease. preclinical work and halve its staff.
◇In February, a multiple-dose clinical trial of YTX-7739 in Parkinson’s disease was partially suspended by the FDA Later, Yumanity announced that it would cut 60% of its workforce by April.
◇In March, Zosano announced a 31% layoff due to the FDA refusal to resubmit the company’s migraine drug.
◇In March, a New Zealand pharmaceutical company led its chief executive officer due to problems with the commercialization of its first drug. Executive leaves, 90% of U.S. workforce cut.
◇Akebia plans to lay off 42 jobs in April following partial clinical suspension and FDA rejection of company’s lead drug candidate %-47%.
◇In April, after a $3.6 billion immuno-oncology drug development collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb failed, Nektar Therapeutics announced a strategic reorganization and will lay off 70% of its staff, including two key executives, chief medical officer and chief commercial officer.
◇April, due to stop development of cardiac force for the treatment of sickle cell disease, beta-thalassemia and preserved ejection fraction Depleted lead drug tovinontrine (IMR-687) and nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 activator IMR-261, Imara announced 83% layoffs, including a chief medical officer.
◇In April, after FDA clinically suspended the company’s chronic hepatitis B program and microbiome drug CP101, Finch Therapeutics announced a restructuring and layoffs of 20%.
◇In May, expectedFDA rejection of its new drug application for bacterial diseases Spero Therapeutics is planning to cut about 75% of its workforce.
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02Structure down to save costs strong>
Split, split, merge…streamlining business is also the main way for pharmaceutical companies to cut costs. Since the beginning of this year, many large multinational pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis, Bayer, and AstraZeneca have been involved.
Novartis unveils restructuring plan expected to save nearly $1 billion by 2024
2022 On April 4, 2019, Novartis’ official website announced its latest restructuring plan, which will integrate multiple business units and merge the Pharmaceutical and Oncology business units into oneInnovative Medicines Unit< span>etc., to streamline the architecture, promote growth and save costs.
▲Screenshot source: Novartis official website
p>This also resulted in a series of executive changes and layoffs. Marie-France Tschudin, current president of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, will serve as president and chief commercial officer of Innovative Medicines International, and Victor Bulto, currently head of U.S. Pharma, will become president of U.S. Innovative Medicines, both of whom will report directly to Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan. In addition, according to the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger, Novartis will cut thousands of jobs worldwide as part of the restructuring plan.
Two days ago (May 26), Novartis further announced the adjustment list of Novartis innovative drug China management team, which will be announced on June 1. officially take effect. Among them, Zhang Ying was appointed as the President and Managing Director of Innovative Drugs China, and served as the interim head of Cardiovascular Therapeutics for Innovative Drugs China. (For details, click “Official Implementation on June 1! Staff Structure Adjustment of Novartis Innovative Drugs China Management Team”)
Novartis said that with the implementation of the new organizational structure, expects to save at least nearly $1 billion by 2024, while ensuring that by 2020 CAGR of at least 4% through 2026. It expects profit margins to be over 30% in the medium term and over 40% in the medium and long term.
AstraZeneca’s structure has been adjusted one after another Many executives “leave“
< p>In February 2022, AstraZeneca China stated that it has decided to merge the Respiratory and Autoimmune Division, Digestion and Respiratory Nebulization Division to establish Respiratory, Digestive and Autologous Immunization Business Unit, led by Lin Xiao, currently its China Vice President and Head of Respiratory and Autoimmunity Business Unit.
The whereabouts of Chen Penggen, the former head of the Digestion and Respiratory Atomization Division, will be notified later. Yang Zaifeng, the current assistant vice president of AstraZeneca China, will continue to lead the sales teams of respiratory nebulized products, digestive injection products, and digestive oral products of the Digestive and Respiratory Nebulization Business Unit, and will be directly responsible for the China Vice President, Respiratory, Digestive and Autoimmune Business Units Reported by Lin Xiao.
At the same time, the separation of the Respiratory and Digestive Division will be terminated. AstraZeneca China said that the respiratory business is the most important part of AstraZeneca’s global and China’s future strategic business. The new business unit after the merger will continue to consolidate its position in the respiratory and digestive market, integrate its core product advantages in key therapeutic areas, and continue to focus on key products such as Sympic, Bezorix, and Biowo.
Actually, AstraZeneca has been making continuous structural adjustments earlier. According to incomplete statistics, the following changes will be made in the second half of 2021:
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September 6, 2021AstraZeneca China announced the official establishment of the rare disease business unit.
On November 15, 2021, AstraZeneca China announced the adjustment of part of its business structure. The oncology business was merged into the oncology business unit, and the non-tumor business became independent and became the Jixian chronic disease business unit; on the other hand, the cardiovascular and metabolism business unit and the kidney business unit were merged to form the cardiovascular, kidney and metabolism business unit.
In December 2021, AstraZeneca China announced that it would formally establish an omni-channel business unit from January 1, 2022, and appointed AstraZeneca. Liu Qian, vice president of Likang China, is the head of the omni-channel business unit, and comprehensively leads the work of AstraZeneca’s China and county chronic disease business department, retail business department, community business department, Feiying business department and Dongwu county market.
With this adjustment, AstraZeneca China’s latest business structure is divided into four segments: Oncology, Respiratory, Digestive and Autoimmune, Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism, and Rare Diseases .
With the adjustment of the organizational structure, the senior management of AstraZeneca China also changed frequently. The latest news shows that AstraZeneca China Vice President and Head of Lung Cancer Targeted Therapy and Tumor Immunotherapy Business Unit Zhu Jiakang will resign, and his term will expire in June 2022 Officially ended on May 9;Mr. Chen Penggen, former general manager of AstraZeneca China Digestive and Respiratory Nebulization Division, left AstraZeneca China to seek external development opportunities. The last working date is May 31, 2022 .
▶About the departure of AstraZeneca executives, for more detailed reports, click “AstraZeneca Zhu Tong’s Resignation , within 10 months, 9 executives of AZ China have left in a row…》
GSK and Bayer have been split and restructured.
A few days ago, Bayer China announced a new structural adjustment, one is the establishment of the oncology business unit; the other is the merger of cardiovascular and diabetes, renamed the metabolic therapy area; effective The time is June 1, 2022. (For details, please click “Bayer Establishes Oncology Division, Combines Cardiovascular and Diabetes Treatment Teams, Effective June”)
The newly established Oncology Business Unit will be led by Han Shuang, based in Beijing, and will report to Zhou Xiaolan, Executive Vice President of Bayer’s Prescription Drugs Business Unit and President of China. At the same time, Han Shuang will become a member of the China Prescription Drug Management Team . The heads of the respective oncology treatment areas and the head of the tumor field marketing department in South China, North China and West China will report to Han Shuang; the current hemophilia treatment area teams will continue to remain in each branch, and will report to the respiratory department in their respective regions. Therapeutic area director reports; the marketing team will report directly to Hu Ziping, head of the China marketing department.
At the same time, as early as February 2022, GSK officially announced the spin-off of its consumer health business as a new independent consumer healthcare business. The company goes public, the new company is named Haleon, Dave Lewis is named non-executive chairman of the independent consumer healthcare company, and Brian McNamara is CEO.
According to incomplete statistics, this year, there are also frame reorganizations and substantial layoffs to reduce costs:
◇Passage Bio announced a 13% workforce reduction to reduce operating costs and extend cash flow through the second quarter of 2024.
◇To reduce operating costs by 50%, Athenex announces layoffs and focuses R&D on cell therapy .
◇seventy bio announced that it has taken important steps to reduce management costs and simplify its operating model, which is a 6% reduction of current employees and is estimated to cut annual cash expenditures by about $30 million.
◇Silverback Therapeutics Announces Restructuring, Reduces Headcount by 27%, and Reduces Operating ExpensesUtilities and extend its cash flow to 2026. The company also discontinued the SBT6050 and SBT6290 clinical oncology programs to focus resources on the chronic hepatitis B virus program SBT8230 and the ImmunoTAC program.
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3Shutdowns, layoffs…< /strong>Adjusting the strategic direction and focusing on business focus
At the same time, there are also a number of pharmaceutical companies that have made adjustments by closing factories and reducing R&D expenses. Strategic direction, realize the specialization of business focus, so that a large number of employees cannot escape the fate of being laid off.
For example,SanofiIn the March 31 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice (WARN) of New York, 25 workers face “layoffs” as a result of resource consolidation, a factory in the state will be closed, employees will be cut, and 25 workers will be laid off. The layoffs will begin on July 1 and end on April 1, 2023.
At the end of March, just a few months after the $11.5 billion deal with Acceleron Pharma,MerckIt has telegraphed its plans to cut back on newly acquired divisions. Merck & Co. is laying off a group of Acceleron employees in Cambridge, Massachusetts, affecting 143 employees, from May 31 to November 18, according to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining (WARN) Notice.
In addition, the following pharmaceutical companies are included:
◇In January, Japanese pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo announced that it would be closing California 60 Human’s Plexxiko R&D facility is intended to free up funds for ADC drug pipeline development.
◇In January, after the new CEO of Zymeworks, Kenneth Galbraith, took office, he announced that he would cut Cut half of senior leadership and lay off 25% of staff, including chief scientific officer and executive vice president of early development, chief people officer and chief commercial officer.
◇In February, due to the company reorientation, priorities shifted to In the preclinical pipeline, the president and CEO of Gemini Therapeutics has resigned, and the number of layoffs has reached 80%.
◇In March, due to the focus on two core medical areas with a focus on the immune system< /strong> – Minimal residual disease and immunotherapy, approximately 100 employees at Adaptive Biotechnologies were laid off.
◇In March, Orion announced downsizing its R&D division with plans to refocus its business on cancer and pain, leading to a halt in development of rare and neurodegenerative diseases, resulting in the layoff of 37 employees.
◇In March, Bone Therapeutics cut its top management and made significant adjustments to the entire R&D pipeline, focusing on on the “off-the-shelf” cell therapy platform – ALLOB.
◇In March, Taysha Gene Therapies announced a 35% layoff and shrinks R&D Focusing on giant axonal neuropathy (GAN) and Rett syndrome, the layoffs are to continue funding its gene therapy.
◇In April, based on the needs of its R&D pipeline adjustment and strategic reorganization, 70% of Catalyst Biosciences staff will be laid off.
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References:
1. Novartis announces new organizational structure to accelerate growth, strengthen pipeline and increase productivity2.Fierce Biotech.Fierce Biotech Layoff Tracker: Genocea closes up shop, Applied axes 40% of staff3.E pharmaceutical manager “The CEO resigned, the sales team was restructured, and faced the risk of being acquired. How should Bojian go in the “post-Aduhelm” era? 》
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