Today's Top Stories Merck's ($MRK) long-planned job cuts are set to accelerate. The company announced its intent to shed some 15,000 jobs by 2012 last year, but thousands of those jobs have yet to go. Sources tell Pharmalot that Merck plans to amp up its layoff process soon, probably early next month. Merck announced the cuts in the wake of its 2009 merger with Schering-Plough. The idea was to save some $3.5 billion by slashing the payroll by 10% and shuttering facilities. Such an enormous restructuring plan takes time, of course, and as of March, Merck still had about 8,000 jobs remaining to be cut, Pharmalot figures. Now, the layoffs will speed up, the blog's sources said. And they may not end with the announced 15,000. Company insiders tell Pharmalot that officials may want to cut the workforce even more than they had planned. Merck execs are combing operations for more ways to save money, they say. The company itself declined comment. Merck's layoffs, while quite substantial, are still fewer than Pfizer's announced job cuts in association with its Wyeth merger. Other Big Pharma firms have cut back by the thousands as well. - read the Pharmalot post Related Articles:
Merck to close Inspire HQ, cut jobs
Pharma layoffs: 300K in 10 years
Merck puts off Dutch closures to renegotiate Read more about: Merck, pharmaceutical layoffs
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If you're a pharma M&A junkie, then the next couple of years should make you happy. Unfortunately, the news isn't as good for those seeking a job in the drug industry. That's the message from a new KPMG survey of 100 pharma executives, many of whom expect difficult times ahead. Some 83% of top pharma officials say they expect their companies to either buy or be bought over the next two years. Cash-rich drugmakers will continue their quest to restock pipelines and fill revenue gaps created by new generic competition. In addition, they're looking to further their geographic expansion by investing in deals or organic expansion into more emerging markets. But all that emphasis on deals and expansion is defensive. Pharma executives still expect the business to be tough over the next several years, with the most optimistic 30% seeing economic recovery by the end of 2012 and the least-optimistic 27% predicting recovery by the end of 2014. "The good news is companies have cash to invest in or acquire new medicine breakthroughs, or markets and customers to drive some growth," KPMG partner David Blumberg said in a statement. In other words, in this economy, expect to buy growth, not fuel it from within. No wonder, then, that the hiring picture looks pretty bleak. Only 41% of the executives said they'd be adding to their payrolls in 2012. Even more frightening: Almost one-quarter expect hiring to "never...return to pre-recession levels." - read the KPMG release
- get more from the Philadelphia Inquirer
- see the coverage from PharmaExec Related Articles:
N. American pharma buys drive up M&A prices
Burrill: A useless 10 years of pharma M&A
Dealmaking goes from mega to mini Read more about: Mergers and Acquisitions, pharmaceutical hires
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| By Tracy Staton |  Comment |  Forward | < a href="http://links.mkt1985.com/ctt?kn=106&ms=MzU0NDQzMAS2&r=MjM2NzI3MjAzMjcS1&b=0&j=MTExNzIxMDQ1S0&mt=1&rt=0" name="api_addthis_com_oexchange_J5hc7JrL0IxUH1jHZ0gSA" > Twitter |  Facebook |  LinkedIn | Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY) is joining the chorus of drugmakers bewailing Europe's troubles. Economic crisis means cash-strapped countries aren't paying their bills on time, putting a pinch on pharma payables, BMS Europe chief Ron Cooper told Dow Jones. Meanwhile, drug-price cuts and austerity-level spending exacerbate the pain. The sovereign debt crisis has an immediate effect on payables, Cooper said. It's not just Greece that's in arrears with pharma. "Many of these countries are taking increasing amounts of time to actually pay," he told Dow Jones. But it's also a longer-term threat, because financial limitations can in turn limit countries' willingness to pay for new meds. However, luckily for BMS, it has a promising new drug to help offset these roadblocks to European growth. Yervoy, the company's breakthrough treatment for advanced melanoma, got the final nod from European regulators yesterday. Given that it's the first new treatment in decades, and the first approved treatment to significantly extend patients' lives, even budget-minded governments are likely to dig deep into their pocketbooks to pay the (steep) cost. Pricing for Yervoy in Europe will be roughly equal to U.S. pricing: €21,000, or $29,927, compared with $30,000 per infusion. But Cooper figures that because of the small number of eligible patients, the impact on healthcare budgets will be limited, Reuters reports. BMS counts some 8,000 people have advanced melanoma in France, Italy, Germany, Britain and Spain combined. "Our hope for continued growth in Europe is based on driving more volume and adding new products," Cooper told the news service. "Luckily we have a strong pipeline and that gives us opportunities to grow volume, sell new products and hopefully overcome some of those significant price impacts." - get the release from BMS
- see the Dow Jones interview
- read the Reuters article Related Articles:
Study: BMS drug works in untreated melanoma patients
ASCO spotlight on Yervoy, Zytiga and more
EMA nod for key new drugs from GSK, Merck, BMS Read more about: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Europe, Yervoy
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The scandal surrounding Servier's Mediator drug in France has spawned a new approach to regulating pharma. Under pressure from an increasingly distrustful public, Health Minister Xavier Bertrand has proposed sweeping changes to France's regulatory framework, InPharm reports. French regulators have been feeling the political heat from recent disclosures linking as many as 2,000 deaths with the now-withdrawn diabetes drug Mediator. The Servier drug was allowed to stay on the market in France after it had been withdrawn for safety reasons in other European markets. It was finally withdrawn there in November 2009. Some have blamed France-based Servier's close ties with doctors and regulators for Mediator's long stay on the market, InPharm notes. The new regulations will require additional assessments of new drugs, mandate disclosures from industry and bar pharma funding of professional education. They'll also provide tighter controls on off-label prescribing. Mediator was often prescribed off-label in France for weight loss. Sales-rep visits to doctors would also be restricted. French lawmakers will begin considering the proposals this fall. In the meantime, the ministry has begun reviewing 19,000 drugs currently approved in France. Bertrand predicts that many existing meds will be withdrawn because they can't demonstrate they're not inferior to other treatments. - read the InPharm coverage Related Articles:
Servier denies hiding risks of withdrawn diabetes drug
Servier founder to take stand in Mediator case
French patients, pols attack gov't over Mediator Read more about: drug safety, Mediator, Servier
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Has GlaxoSmithKline's ($GSK) Benlysta hit the market just in time? As the company celebrated the FDA nod for its new lupus drug--to be marketed with partner Human Genome Sciences--and then wrapped up European approval, sales of its Advair respiratory drug began to decline. As PharmaTimes reports, the asthma and COPD treatment saw sales fall 7% in June, and year-to-date revenues have dropped by 5%. Analysts are lamenting the decline, and some see it as a harbinger of worse to come. Generic versions are beginning to crop up, and Goldman Sachs expects copycat Advair to be widely available in Europe within 9 months. In fact, Goldman says pressure on the Advair franchise will cause the stock to underperform. But on the bright side, GSK execs continue to maintain that Advair generics won't replicate the company's inhaler device, meaning that they won't be fully substitutable, and that, in turn, will help slow down generic adoption. And Matrix's Navid Malik backs up that view, PharmaTimes notes. What's more, there's Benlysta. It has nabbed final EMA approval after U.S. approval in March. That's one reason why Malik is upbeat about GSK's near-term prospects. He figures the drug should counteract lack of confidence in the company's ability to pull off the kind of growth it needs in the next few years--and he expects GSK to manage top-line growth by next year, just as other Big Pharmas are suffering most. - read the release from GSK
- see the Dow Jones news
- get more from PharmaTimes Related Articles:
Sweden approves copy of GSK asthma blockbuster
GSK chief was right about tough-to-copy Advair
Now on the market, Benlysta meets skeptics
EMA nod for key new drugs from GSK, Merck, BMS Read more about: Human Genome Sciences, Benlysta, GlaxoSmithKline, Advair
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Notice the physician survey we ran in yesterday's FiercePharma just below this space? Readers can now expect the same exclusive insight into physician sentiments every Wednesday thanks to an innovative new partnership we've struck with Sermo.
@FiercePharma: Note to Pfizer: Bayer shopping for vet buys. 
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