BioHealth Job Cuts Keep Coming (AZN, PFE, BSX, BMY, LLY, JNJ)
It used to be that pharmaceutical jobs and medical device maker jobs were among the best and most immune of all sectors in the economy. They paid well, there was job security, the benefits were solid, stock option and retirement plans were always growing, and on. That is still the case in many positions inside those companies. But mergers, competition, efficiency, redundancy, and a new spending environment are changing this for many jobs in these once-safe sector.
Mergers have led to many “efficiencies” to be realized, and allowed “redundancies” (i.e. low-yield jobs and departments) to be eliminated. And now there is an ongoing threat to the sector from Washington. While the target has gone away from all of healthcare to health insurance, we are still seeing the announcement from major companies of more job cuts. We have compiled a few of the latest found announcements, ad this is just a part of the whole pie.
AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN) is reportedly offering buyouts “to thousands of its near-5,000 workers” from its U.S. sales force.
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) has outlined more job cuts from its Wyeth combination as part of a projected 15% cut to the combined Pfizer-Wyeth team. What this number will ultimately come to is still unknown, and Pfizer’s head count had already fallen by over 6,000 to 75,400 at the end of last quarter.
Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) had job cuts a couple years ago, and it appears that the job cuts may not be over. Recent health reform legislation from the Senate Finance Committee was noted by its CEO as being an event which could potentially trigger another 1,000 to 2,000 job cuts.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY) has been in an ongoing 10,000 layoff mode since last year, but in the last week came word that about 25% of its Abilify antipsychotic drug sales force after an evaluation from its co-marketing pact with Otsuka Corp. These were recent cuts and are still unquantified.
Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE: LLY) announced last month that it is targeting $1 billion in savings… with the elimination of up to 5,500 jobs total by some time in 2011.
This summer came the announcement from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) about its plan to cut up a range of 3,615 to to 4,800 jobs. That is a small amount considering the number of deals it has made and considering it has 120,000 employees.
JON C. OGG
OCTOBER 20, 2009
BioHealth Earnings Floodgates Opening (BSX, BIIB, GILD, ISRG, PFE, DGX, SYK, AMGN, ELN, LLY, GENZ, STJ, BMY, MRK, SGP, ZMH)
Next week is going to be the mother of all earnings reports for the BioHealth community. We have included the key device companies as well in this calendar with the routine top drug and biotech companies. As a reminder, these estimates may change between now and when some of the players report earnings. In the screens for earnings we have the estimates included listed as the Thomson Reuters consensus figures.
MONDAY OCTOBER 19
- Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) $0.14 EPS on $2.04 billion in revenues
TUESDAY OCTOBER 20
- Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) $1.04 EPS on $1.11 billion in revenues
- Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) $0.67 EPS on $1.76 billion in revenues
- Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) $1.46 EPS and $256.44 million in revenues
- Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) $0.48 EPS and $11.4 billion in revenues
- Quest Diagnostics Inc. (NYSE: DGX) $0.96 EPS and $1.89 billion in revenues
- Stryker Corp. (NYSE: SYK) $0.69 EPS and $$1.62 billion in revenues
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21
- Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) $1.27 EPS and $3.79 billion in revenues
- Elan Corporation, plc (NYSE: ELN) -$0.13 EPS on $285.18 million in revenues
- Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) $1.01 EPS and $5.4 billion in revenues
- Genzyme Corporation (NASDAQ: GENZ) $0.44 EPS and $1.11 billion in revenues
- St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE: STJ) $0.58 EPS and $1.16 billion in revenues
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22
- Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) $0.51 EPS and $5.5 billion in revenues
- Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK) $0.83 EPS and $6 billion in revenues
- Schering-Plough Corporation (NYSE: SGP) $0.39 EPS and $4.45 billion in revenues
- Zimmer Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ZMH) $0.86 EPS and $953.6 million in revenues
JON C. OGG
OCTOBER 16, 2009
Boston Scientific Very Promising New Defibrillator Statistics (BSX)
Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) has been down and almost out for almost as long as memory serves. The company can’t even blame a bear market for its share price woes. But the company has some solid news in its cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators showing a great reduction in death. If this holds up, it could be one of the best things for the company in recent periods.
The company and the University of Rochester Medical Center have announced that the landmark MADIT-CRT trial has met its primary endpoint, where the preliminary results showed the cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators with a significant 29% reduction in death or heart failure interventions when compared to traditional implantable cardioverter defibrillators.
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Stents Set Up For A Comeback (ABT, BSX, MDT, JNJ, SRDX, ANPI)
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) announced after the close today, in a decision we have been waiting on for what feels like forever, that the FDA has approved for the company to begin marketing its XIENCE drug-eluting coronary stent systems.
Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) will get to sell basically the same exact stent under a different name. Boston Scientific also has the old Taxus stent. Angiotech (NASDAQ: ANPI) is also Boston’s Taxus stent coating partner for its molecule.
As far as the others, this will get to compete with the Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT) Endeavor stent system as well as Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) Cypher stent. Medtronic won the first Stent system approval in February after a 4-year hiatus. SurModics Inc. (NASDAQ: SRDX) is the molecule partner over at J&J for the drug-eluting coatings for teh Cypher stent.
This is being viewed as a key win for Abbott Labs with shares up 1.6% at $55.10 in after-hours trading. The good news is that the dark clouds surrounding stents and drug-eluting stents is starting to lift. The bad news on the topic is that this is now a highly competitive sub-sector in coronary medical technology.
Jon Ogg
July 2, 2008
