Glaxo cuts further 200 UK jobs

Source: Reuters

Date :03/12/2008 13:49:59

GlaxoSmithKline is cutting a further 200 jobs at a factory in north-east England that makes its anti-nausea drug Zofran, a spokeswoman for the world's second biggest drugmaker said on Wednesday.

The job cuts at Glaxo's Barnard Castle site reflect a need to realign production in the face of patent expiries. Zofran is an older Glaxo medicine now facing generic competition.

Last month, in a similar move, Glaxo said it planned to close a factory in south-east England with the loss of 620 jobs because of falling sales of another two older drugs, Lamictal for epilepsy and Valtrex for herpes.

However, the Barnard Castle facility in north-east England, which employs a total of around 1,100 staff, will remain open and continue to play an important role as a centre of new product introductions.

Site director Roger Connor said the latest job losses were regrettable but added Glaxo had invested 48 million pounds in Barnard Castle in the past two years and would invest a further 17 million in 2009.

Steve Tompkins of the GMB trade union said the number of jobs lost was higher than he had expected and the news was a further blow to a region that has already seen a wave of redundancies as the British economy stumbles.

Glaxo Chief Executive Andrew Witty, who took over in May, has made increased efficiency one of his top priorities for the company as he seeks to improve returns to shareholders after several years of lacklustre performance.

Glaxo also told staff in the United States in November it was axing 1,000 sales jobs to make the operation there more competitive in an increasingly tough market.

Drug companies worldwide have eliminated thousands of jobs in the past two years as a lack of significant new drugs, declining sales of lucrative flagship franchises and fierce competition from cheap generics have cut into profits.

Pfizer, Merck & Co, AstraZeneca, Wyeth and Bristol-Myers Squibb are among other leading firms to have cut jobs significantly.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

LONDON (Reuters)