화이자, 연구인력 800명 해고 조치

화이자, 연구인력 800명 해고 조치

신약개발연구 부진및 경비 절감 목적

세계 최대의 제약회사인 미국 화이자는 올해중에 모두 800명에 달하는 과학자(연구인력)들을 해고할 방침이라고 13일 밝혔다. 뉴욕에 본부를 둔 화이자의 크리스텐 니스 대변인은 이번 감원은 신약개발 연구의 부진과 대규모 경상경비를 줄이기 위한 대책의 일환이라면서 전 세계적으로 현재 1만여명에 달하는 연구인력중 올해내에 5-8%를 감원할 계획이라고 말했다. 이는 암, 알츠하이머, 정신분열증, 통증, 염증, 당뇨 등 연구개발 집중분야에 매진하기 위한 구조조정의 일환으로서 미국.영국 연구소를 중심으로 이뤄질 계획이다

니스 대변인은 "연구원 해고는 회사의 집중 연구 분야를 재조정하는 상황에서 이뤄지는 것"이라고 말했다. 한편 화이자는 2010~2012년간 15~20개 제제에 대한 FDA 승인을 신청할 계획이며 올해 28개 제제에 대한 3상 임상을 실시할 예정이라고 공개했다. 또한, 계속해서 줄기세포 및 치료백신에 대한 라이선스나 인수 기회를 모색하고 있다. <관련 원문기사> By Ransdell Pierson NEW YORK, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc, whose $7.5 billion annual research budget has produced few major medicines in recent years, said on Tuesday it would cut 800 research positions this year as part of a restructuring. The world's biggest drugmaker, which recently narrowed its sights to 10 disease areas and dropped its long-standing focus on heart research, said the layoffs will be at laboratories in St. Louis, Groton, Conn., La Jolla, Calif. and Sandwich, England. "It's part of Pfizer's overall plan to refocus research in a more efficient way; we're taking a methodical approach to hit our goals," company spokesman Ray Kerins said of the job cuts. Pfizer did not disclose how much savings the layoffs might generate or whether additional research jobs could be targeted next year and beyond. "We're in a strong financial position, with a strong balance sheet," Kerins said. But company revenue fell in the third quarter amid declines for Lipitor and drugs for blood pressure, cancer and allergies now competing with generics. The New York-based company has already cut more than 25,000 jobs since 2004, or about a quarter of its overall global workforce, in an attempt to cut costs and generate earnings growth, despite generic competition for many of its major medicines. Pfizer's biggest challenge comes in 2011, when its Lipitor cholesterol drug faces competition from cheaper generics. Earnings growth has been anemic and shares of the company are trading at 10-year lows, despite belt tightening and the promotion in mid-2006 of Pfizer's general counsel Jeffrey Kindler as chief executive. Disappointing clinical trials have forced the company to scrap a number of once-promising experimental drugs, including a cholesterol medicine called torcetrapib that Pfizer hoped would become a $10 billion-a-year product that could help offset expected plunging Lipitor sales. The company is counting on Martin Mackay, a longtime Pfizer executive who was promoted to research chief in late 2007, to deliver the kinds of big products that have eluded its laboratories over the past decade. Mackay, speaking on Tuesday at a JP Morgan healthcare conference in San Francisco, highlighted experimental treatments for cancer, arthritis and Alzheimer's disease and said Pfizer was on track to file 15 to 20 marketing applications for drugs between 2010 and 2012. Other hard-pressed large drugmakers have also cut thousands of jobs to deal with slow sales of medicines and generic competition. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co said in December it would cut another 10 percent of its sales force by 2010. Two months earlier, London-based GlaxoSmithKline Plc said it would cut up to 850 research and development jobs in Britain and the United States, equivalent to around 6 percent of the company's overall R&D workforce. (Editing by Andre Grenon)

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기사 입력시간 : 2009-01-14 오전 9:57:39