Monday, October 1, 2012

Sanofi cutting 900 jobs in France

From this week's C&EN:
Sanofi will eliminate 900 jobs in France by 2015 as it refocuses R&D efforts in its home country. The cuts are significantly fewer than the 2,500 job losses predicted by trade unions in July, when Sanofi said an overhaul in France was imminent. 
The pharma firm has made significant changes to its internal R&D network since 2009. In addition to selling R&D sites in Porcheville, France, and Alnwick, England, it closed research labs in Malvern, Pa., and Bridgewater, N.J. 
Sanofi CEO Christopher A. Viehbacher said in the company’s second-quarter earnings conference call that the layoffs in France are not driven by its larger efforts to cut costs. The moves are prompted by the firm’s ongoing attempt to improve the R&D process, an effort that Viehbacher notes has worked for the firm in other countries. Viehbacher pointed out that the French research operations have failed to invent a new drug for two decades. 
Despite fears to the contrary, the majority of the company’s French research sites will remain open, although activities at some will be refocused.
Best wishes to them, and to all of us.

3 comments:

  1. I believe the vast majority of the 900 job "cuts" are through early retirements and voluntary redundancies. These also do not include the site in Toulouse - which they want to get rid of all together - per Bloomberg and Reuters and others.

    Not quite as brutal as your "gotcha" headline. Might want to read other sources than C&EN, kind of like quoting ChemBark or other blogs.

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  2. Lyle, I have yet to see you do anything besides troll for arguments on chemistry blogs. Go back to selling monorails in North Haverbrook.

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  3. Arguments? What arguments. Just stating what has been reported on other "news" sites. Thanks Chief, but I'd rather talk to Lou next time.

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looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20