French pharmaceutical company Sanofi (NYSE: SNY) said it will shut down its Bridgewater, New Jersey-based research and development facilities and consolidate them in its Boston hub.
The company said it could not say how many jobs would be cut when its Bridgewater r&d facilities shut in the fourth quarter of 2012.
It will set up a North America Development Center in Bridgewater will include clinical development, regulatory affairs and other development platforms, according to a press statement from the company. The development center will be added onto the North America pharmaceuticals headquarters and the recently announced North America global services division, also based in Bridgewater.
In a press statement the pharmaceutical giant said it is adapting its North America pharmaceuticals business “to focus resources on key growth areas and where it can deliver the most impact for patients while sustainably managing costs.”
A spokesman for the company said the move would have no impact on the two research and development sites in Pennsylvania: the Sanofi Pasteur research site in Swiftwater and the Great Valley research facility in Malvern.
Sanofi said US developments in the past year required it to reassess the size and structure of its sales force, including “Genzyme integration, the full impact of patent (expirations and) generic competition, regulatory and payor pressures, a depressed economy, deficit-reduction efforts and health care reform,” according to a press statement.
The US accounted for approximately 25% of Sanofi’s net sales in the third quarter or $2.9 billion.
The move is consistent with with the strategy CEO Chris Viehbacher has spoken about publicly earlier this year following the company’s acquisition of the when he said: ’My goal as CEO is never to inaugurate a new research and development center,’ describing them as lumbering, resource hungry institutions that aren’t very productive.
By Stephanie Baum
Stephanie Baum is the East Coast Innovation Reporter for MedCityNews.com. She enjoys covering healthcare startups across health IT, drug development and medical devices and innovations deployed to improve medical care. She graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania and has worked across radio, print and video. She's written for The Christian Science Monitor, Dow Jones & Co. and United Business Media.Visit website | More posts by Author
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