Pfizer job losses speculation following drug trial end

Following the suspension of a phase III clinical trial investigating cardiovascular cholesterol drug torceptrapib, due to an increased mortality rate observed in trial patients, there has been speculation from analysts that the company could shed a number of jobs.

The Day predicts that the loss of this compound, together with the pharmaceuticals marketplace shifting towards generics, will lead Pfizer to announce a number of reductions to its staff at its meeting with industry leaders on January 22nd 2007.

Earlier this month, similar predictions were reported in The Sunday Business Post, regarding staff at the company’s plants situated in Cork and Dublin.

Jason Napodano, an analyst for Zacks Equity Research, told The Day: “[Pfizer are] so bloated in some areas.”

“They’ve got all these levels of organisation al structure between the [chief executive officer] and the guys in the lab that they’ll probably look to streamline that.”

Pfizer’s existing cholesterol treatment, Lipitor, will become off-patent and open to competition from the generics sector in 2011.

Last month, Pfizer notified the US Food and Drug Administration that it was to suspend its phase III clinical trial involving administration of a torceptrapib and atorvastatin combination following increased mortality in patients in the tests.