Schering Plough sheds jobs in cost-efficiency drive

Schering-Plough announced a series of measures today to improve the quality of four of its plants in America.

The drug maker has taken action to improve the quality of its plants in Puerto Rico and New Jersey since 2002, after comments calling for improvement from US regulators.

It was found that the company was producing at excess manufacturing capacity, following investigations into manufacturing techniques. As a result, Schering-Plough has been forced to make reductions to its workforce.

Rosemarie Yancosek, company spokeswoman for Schering-Plough, told Reuters: “We have had excess capacity at these four plants, and now we’re streamlining that.

“You always try to improve efficiencies from what you make in the plants to getting products out to stores and consumers.”

Company expenses between $235 million to $260 million are expected following the re-structuring, with annual cost reductions to be in the region of $100 million at the start of next year.

Earnings have improved substantially for the company, with sales of cholesterol fighters Vytorin and Zetia boosting profits.

Currently, around 17 per cent of Americans (around 34.5 million) have high cholesterol, according to reports from Benefit News, which can carry worrying implications for one’s health.

Furthermore, less than half have normal cholesterol levels and with high cholesterol showing no symptoms, experts fear cholesterol could be responsible a health epidemic in the future.

However, drugs such as Vytorin and Zetin are now being used to lower cholesterol by cutting the amount of it present in the body as well as minimising the amount absorbed from food.

Such drugs, in addition to good exercise and balanced, nutritious diets, are key in cutting down the threat of high cholesterol to one’s health.

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