Roche to cut 4,800 jobs; pharma mainly hit
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Roche is to cut 4,800 jobs, or 6% of its global workforce, in a CHF2.4bn ($2.4bn) annual cost-cutting plan to offset pricing pressures and a "more challenging market environment", it said. The restructuring plan, called Operational Excellence, will mostly affect the pharmaceutical division – particularly in sales and marketing (2,650 jobs cut) and manufacturing (1350 jobs cut) – and lead to restructuring costs of about CHF2.7 billion over the next two years. The programme is expected to generate savings of CHF1.8 billion in 2011 and CHF2.4 billion from 2012 onwards. In addition to the planned job cuts, the company expects to transfer 800 jobs internally and about 700 positions to "third parties". About 6,300 jobs will be affected overall, with most of the reductions in the US.