Allergan announced it will lay off 460 employees, mainly in sales and marketing, while King Pharmaceuticals said it would cut 760 positions, including 380 field sales staff.
Allergan announced the cuts, affecting about 5% of the Irvine, CA-based company’s global headcount, alongside disappointing fourth-quarter results. The layoffs will fall mainly on two areas: US urology sales and marketing, owing to the company’s decision to focus on urology specialists and market its overactive bladder drug Sanctura XR to primary care docs through a co-promotion deal with a partner yet to be determined; and US and European marketing personnel as the company “adjusts its back-office structures to the reduced short-term sales outlook for some businesses.”
The company said in a statement: “With the exception of US urology sales force and some low productivity sales territories in Europe, no other sales force positions are affected.”
Bristol, TN-based King Pharmaceuticals said its cuts would result in a total workforce reduction of 22%. Of the 760 positions King is cutting, 240 are eliminations of corporate positions resulting from its acquisition of Alpharma. Another 520 will come from a restructuring initiative aimed at reducing the firm’s operating costs following its loss of a patent battle over its muscle relaxant Skelaxin, and of those, 380 are field sales positions, while another 140 are corporate posts.
