Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said today it plans to cut 7,800 more jobs, including over 20 per cent of its European sales force.
The company, which employs over 1,800 at a number of facilities in Dublin and Cork , says it wants to save up to an extra $1 billion by the end of 2008 and ensure profit growth despite flat revenue.
Pfizer, whose sales growth has stalled due to generic competition and failure to introduce many significant new drugs, previously had aimed for annual cost savings of $4 billion by 2008.
It had already announced plans to cut its US sales force by 20 per cent, or 2,200 jobs. The company, during an afternoon meeting with analysts, projected flat revenue in 2007, with earnings of $2.18 to $2.25 per share - in line with the average estimate of $2.20 among analysts polled by Reuters Estimates.
The forecast, which excludes special items, translates into earnings growth of 5.8 per cent to 9.2 per cent.
For 2008, it projected flat revenue and profit growth of 6 per cent to 9 per cent, to $2.31 to $2.45 per share.
Today's meeting follows Pfizer's bombshell announcement on December 2nd that it had halted studies of torcetrapib, a drug that raises "good" HDL cholesterol, due to safety concerns.
Pfizer had been counting on the product to post future annual sales of more than $10 billion.
With torcetrapib's demise, analysts have questioned whether Pfizer can produce enough new products and revenue to offset dramatic sales declines for its popular cholesterol fighter Lipitor when the $13 billion-a-year drug faces generic competition in 2010 or 2011.
The company said today it expects Lipitor to achieve "modest" sales growth this year.
Today, the New York-based company said it would close manufacturing sites in Brooklyn, New York and Omaha, Nebraska, and hopes to sell a third plant in Feucht, Germany.
Moreover, the company said it plans to close three research sites in Michigan and aims to shut other research sites in Nagoya, Japan and Amboise, France.
Pfizer also said it will no longer attempt to discover drugs in dermatology or gastroenterology, although it will continue to develop such drugs already in testing and will license or buy such products from other drugmakers.
The company also said its research teams within specific disease areas - now scattered through different parts of the world - will be consolidated into fewer sites.
