AstraZeneca PLC Hands Out Pink Slips to Unknown Number of Contract Sales Reps
May 17, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
LONDON – The wait is over and AstraZeneca has finally pulled the trigger on its job cuts. To help cut $1.1 billion, the company has terminated an unknown number of contract sales positions from Publicis Touchpoint Solutions.
FiercePharma confirmed the jobs cuts today. An AstraZeneca spokesperson said the company may look at additional sales positions for future cuts.
AstraZeneca’s clinical educator team will also see some job reductions as well. The job cuts will go into effect on June 30. Sales staff from Publicis largely handled AstraZeneca’s diabetes drugs, as well as some respiratory prodcuts. AstraZeneca uses about 1,600 contractors from Publicis, but it is not known how many will be handed their pink slips next month. The sales team was targeted for cuts as part of a strategy to become more efficient, the company told FiercePharma.
The job cuts were announced hours before the company revealed positive results from its Phase III trial of its new asthma drug, benralizumab. The drug demonstrated significant reductions in the annual asthma exacerbation rate compared to placebo, the company announced. The trials evaluated the efficacy and safety of two dose regimens of benralizumab as an add-on therapy for severe uncontrolled asthma with eosinophilic inflammation in adults and adolescents 12 years of age and older, AstraZeneca said. The company anticipates a regulatory filing for benralizumab later this year.
Benralizumab, if approved, will be one more step in AstraZeneca bolstering its respiratory pipeline. Earlier this year the company struck a $575 million deal with Takeda Pharmaceutical to acquire that company’s core respiratory business, including global rights to roflumilast, a treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
AstraZeneca, the maker of blockbuster COPD treatments Symbicort and Pulmicort, currently has U.S. rights to roflumilast, which is sold under the brand name Daliresp and Daxas in Europe, and was acquired earlier this year in a deal with Actavis . Full acquisition of the global rights will support AstraZeneca’s respiratory franchise and complement the company’s portfolio of treatments for severe COPD, the company said in a statement. Additionally, AstraZeneca manufactures COPD drugs, Eklira Genuair, Tudorza Pressair and Duaklir Genuair.
Pascal Soirot, chief executive officer of London-based AstraZeneca, announced the company was undergoing a restructuring plan to net savings of about $1.1 billion by the end of 2017. The restructuring plan will involve a $1.5 billion one-off restructuring charge, with total restructuring charges expected to be $2.4 billion through the end of 2017. Most of the cuts will be outside of Britain and primarily in sales and manufacturing operations, BioSpace reported earlier this month.
AstraZeneca’s latest job cuts were announced in the wake of sagging earnings and stiffer competition, particularly for its ulcer drug Nexium and COPD drug Symbicort. AstraZeneca said sales for Nexium were down about 24 percent during the first quarter and sales for Symbicort were down about 7 percent. The company’s popular anti-cholesterol drug Crestor saw sales drop about 2 percent as well. Sales for Crestor could continue to drop as it will begin to face generic competition this month.
AstraZeneca is not the only company to reduce its sales force over the past few months. In April, Valeant Pharmaceuticals announced it was terminating the external sales force for Addyi, the so-called female Viagra that the company acquired in its $1 billion acquisition of North Carolina-based Sprout last year. Daiichi-Sankyo announced it planned to terminate approximately 1,000 U.S. positions as it reorganizes its U.S. commercial operations from a maturing primary care product portfolio to a specialty portfolio focusing on areas such as cardiovascular, pain management and oncology. The eliminated positions will come from the Daiichi Sankyo’s U.S. commercial home office, located in Parsippany, N.J., as well as field-based sales and other positions throughout the country. U.S. research and development positions will not be impacted, the company said.