AstraZeneca Lays Off 1,150

When you think about drugs the odds are that one of two things comes to mind: either the bottles of pills in your bathroom wall storage or elicit transactions on the street. Most of us do not spend a lot of time thinking about where our local pharmacy gets its hands on all of the drugs that they have behind the counter. The folks over at Freaknomics  showed that illegal drug deals are simply not that profitable. As it turns out that being an above the board drug dealer may not be as fiscally sound as it once was either. A major drug company is getting ready to layoff a significant number of its staffers.

AstraZeneca is getting ready to lay off about 1.150 of its workers. Those workers will come primarily from the company’s U.S. sales force, though some of the workers who are slated to get a pink slip are in management roles. Most likely those managers will be the ones who supervise the sales staff. Without anyone to manage these positions are simply functionless.

Interestingly enough this is not the first time in the recent past that AstraZeneca has taking to tightening its belt by letting go of U.S. based staffers. About two months ago the company undertook a much smaller layoff. That loss of about 400 jobs was blamed primarily on pressure from generic drug manufacturers who cut into the company’s profits as the patents to drugs wear off and a cheaper version of the same chemical can be made by anyone. Those previous layoffs were centered in the state of Delaware, where the company is based. These new layoffs will be more spread out geographically.

“These changes are driven by the need to effectively compete in a challenging environment,” Tony Jewell, AstraZeneca spokesman told a reporter for Delaware Online. “We are building a leaner, more efficient U.S. organization that will enable us to continue delivering against our mission of patient health while remaining a strong, sustainable business in the future.”

At the current moment the layoffs are all talk. No actual pink slips or WARN notices have been issued ad the company does not expect to actually let go of the staff officially until February, though in the current job market that is not a lot of notice to find a new position. In order to enact the layoffs the company is expected to a charge of between $50 million to $100 million in the fourth quarter of this year.

These layoffs are part of a larger plan by AstraZeneca that entails making radical shifts to the company’s staffing. The plan, which has been in place since January of 2010, will let go of a total of 10,400 workers from different areas of the organization, by the end of the restructuring.

Rich Fante, the president of AstraZeneca’s U.S. business made a statement today about the job losses. “These are difficult decisions that impact valued employees. The changes we are making, however, will help us deliver better results for our business and, most importantly, continue delivering on our mission of patient health.”