Roche coy on job cut reports

Roche is reportedly set to cut thousands of pharma jobs to reduce costs and boost profitability following a series of drug development setbacks.

Swiss newspaper Sonntag says the company is planning to make significant headcount reductions across its global pharma operations, with sales, research and production teams all expected to be affected.

Roche refused to confirm the report, saying it will not be making any decisions on job cuts this week when its annual monthly management meeting is held.

Roche spokesman Alexander Klauser told Reuters: “We are always working to improve productivity and will continue to do so. But it is too early to speculate on potential job cuts.”

Cost cutting has become a fundamental aspect of the industry’s evolving business model in recent years, with most big pharma firms making large job cuts across all divisions in an effort to reduce costs and further protect against looming patent expiries. 

Speaking in July Roche’s chief executive Severin Schwan said such ‘austerity measures’ at his company were expected to lift annual sales by 2% this year.

But Roche has recently had some setbacks for its best selling drug Avastin. The FDA is considering pulling its breast cancer license in the US after a two-year post approval study failed to show its extended efficacy over other treatments and last week the UK drugs watchdog NICE rejected the drug’s colon cancer indication.

The company has also had a number of drug failures this year including its rheumatoid arthritis treatment ocrelizumab, which floundered amid safety concerns, and posted distinctly average half-year results in July amid market pressures. 

Ben Adams