NEW YORK – Pfizer Inc. plans to lay off as many as 2,400 sales staff, up to a third of its marketing work force, this quarter as the drug maker reorganizes its commercial side, according to a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
The layoffs follow the New York company’s recent division of its commercial operations into largely autonomous businesses focusing on specific areas, such as primary care and emerging markets.
Pfizer, the world’s largest drug maker by sales, recently laid off as many as 800 researchers at its leading laboratories around the world. The latest cuts will be to sales representatives and middle managers, said a person familiar with the matter.
It was unclear what impact the layoffs would have, if any, on Pfizer?s Southeast Michigan operations in Kalamazoo, Portage and Holland. Pfizer has already eliminated more than 15,000 jobs since January 2007, including several thousand in Ann Arbor, where it closed a sprawling R&D lab, which was later sold to the University of Michigan.
In a statement, the company said it wouldn’t comment about “rumors or speculation,” but said, “We will continually look for ways to operate our business more effective and efficient way.”
Pfizer has long had the pharmaceutical industry’s largest sales staff, built up during heady times selling blockbusters like the cholesterol fighter Lipitor. But drug companies have been slashing their field forces, as key products begin facing competition from cheaper generics.
For Pfizer, the generic threat looms especially large with Lipitor, which accounts for a quarter of the company’s $48 billion in yearly revenues, losing patent protection in 2011.
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