Genzyme to make worldwide jobs cuts
Monday, 20th September 2010.
More clouds gathered last week around American biotechnology giant Genzyme, which has major research and production sites in Haverhill, after it announced the axing of over 1,000 jobs worldwide.
There is no indication yet of where the jobs, which represent a tenth of the total workforce, will be lost, but the process is expected to start before Christmas and be completed by 2012.
Genzyme, which has its headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is currently the subject of a takeover bid by French drugs giant Sanofi.
Genzyme chief executive officer Henri Temeer who oversaw the £55million investment the company made in Haverhill, creating the landmark 'twin towers', revealed the cutback plan in a memo to employees, quoted last week in the Boston Herald.
In the memo Mr Temeer says the big biotech will eliminate roughly ten per cent of its 12,800-employee work force by 2012, and he notes that the Sanofi takeover proposal reinforces the importance of 'taking control and maximising the value we bring to patients and shareholders'.
A Genzyme spokesman would not confirm to the Herald the number of lay-offs. And there's no word on what proportion of the lay-offs would affect manufacturing operations.
The cuts, however, will begin before the end of the year, he says. The decision follows an evaluation in which executives benchmarked the company against its peers and identified ways to reduce operating costs.
Genzyme has suffered from lost production due to a contamination leading to a plant shutdown and extended clean-up at one of its facilities near Boston last year.
Genzyme told the Wall Street Journal it skimped on preventive maintenance and other quality control measures due to production demands, which stemmed from the early approval of a drug, catching the company off guard.
It had to begin commercial production at its 15-year-old facility, which was already producing two other drugs.
Genzyme's plant in Haverhill also suffered from an extended interruption in production caused by the explosion which occurred on December 16 last year.
There is no indication yet of where the jobs, which represent a tenth of the total workforce, will be lost, but the process is expected to start before Christmas and be completed by 2012.
Genzyme, which has its headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is currently the subject of a takeover bid by French drugs giant Sanofi.
Genzyme chief executive officer Henri Temeer who oversaw the £55million investment the company made in Haverhill, creating the landmark 'twin towers', revealed the cutback plan in a memo to employees, quoted last week in the Boston Herald.
In the memo Mr Temeer says the big biotech will eliminate roughly ten per cent of its 12,800-employee work force by 2012, and he notes that the Sanofi takeover proposal reinforces the importance of 'taking control and maximising the value we bring to patients and shareholders'.
A Genzyme spokesman would not confirm to the Herald the number of lay-offs. And there's no word on what proportion of the lay-offs would affect manufacturing operations.
The cuts, however, will begin before the end of the year, he says. The decision follows an evaluation in which executives benchmarked the company against its peers and identified ways to reduce operating costs.
Genzyme has suffered from lost production due to a contamination leading to a plant shutdown and extended clean-up at one of its facilities near Boston last year.
Genzyme told the Wall Street Journal it skimped on preventive maintenance and other quality control measures due to production demands, which stemmed from the early approval of a drug, catching the company off guard.
It had to begin commercial production at its 15-year-old facility, which was already producing two other drugs.
Genzyme's plant in Haverhill also suffered from an extended interruption in production caused by the explosion which occurred on December 16 last year.
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