February 25, 2015
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Pfizer Inc. yesterday filed a report indicating it was laying off an unidentified number of people at its research center in Cambridge, Mass. In the summer of 2014, Pfizer consolidated several sites in and around Boston into the new research center in Cambridge.
“Pfizer’s Research and Development organization periodically makes adjustments to its staffing mix to respond to shifting priorities in the portfolio and the need for the right pool of talent to deliver on these priorities,” the company stated in the filing. “As a result of these adjustments, Pfizer will be making select headcount reductions in certain areas of R&D, and reallocating headcount to other growing areas of the organization.”
This follows recent speculation that Pfizer would be laying off employees at Lake Forest, Ill.-based Hospira, Inc., which the company acquired for about $17 billion last year.
“We are very well aware that Hospira has a lot of talented individuals and have been very successful,” said Ian Read, Pfizer chief executive officer and chairman in a statement, “as our organization has been successful, so we look to create a combined organization that has the best talent from both organizations.”
Pfizer had a tough year in 2014. In its fourth quarter, the company showed that profit dropped 52 percent, much of it related to patent expirations and generic competition. Analysts have speculated that Pfizer will either need to buy a company or companies, or break up into two or three companies.
The fourth quarter report indicated a decreased quarterly revenue of $440 million, or 3 percent, compared to the previous year. However, revenue in emerging markets increased by 7 percent operationally. Some of the company’s products, including Lyrica, Prevnar, Eliquis and Xeljanz increased sales, but Celebrex, Enbrel and Spiriva took a hit because of generic competition.
Despite that news, the company has over 20 registrational studies starting over the next 4 years and several products, including Ibrance (palbociclib) expecting approval this year.
Yesterday’s announcement is more a symptom of the company’s restructuring in order to increase efficiencies and emphasize areas that it expects show more financial promise.
“As Pfizer recently announced, the company has increased investment in areas that will position us to deliver on some of the most promising scientific advances,” the company said in its most recent filing. “Immuno-oncology and gene therapy are two such areas where we plan to make additional hires in the coming months in an effort to ramp up our capabilities.”
BioSpace Temperature Poll
Analyst Mark Schoenebaum, a biotech and pharmaceuticals analyst and medical doctor for ISI Group Evercore, has been running a Best Hair in Biopharma contest for several months now. So far, the candidates are Bristol-Myers Squibb Company‘s John Elicker, Receptos’ Chief Executive Officer Faheem Hasnain, Celgene‘s Vice President of Investor Relations Patrick Flanigan and Acorda Therapeutics’ Ron Cohen.
We want to know what our BioSpace community thinks: Who do you believe actually has the Best Hair in BioPharma?
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