Sanofi is starting its latest round of job cuts with more than 500 in its home country. According to media reports, almost 300 open R&D jobs won’t be filled, with another 250-plus cuts hitting Sanofi’s commercial operations and corporate offices.
Some layoffs have been expected since November, when the company said it would slash 1.5 billion euros’ worth of annual costs. Sanofi had estimated a few hundred job cuts in France per year for three years, Le Figaro reports..
Sanofi officials met with union leaders Tuesday to unveil some details. Exact numbers vary, but multiple media reports say the company plans to cut 280 to 296 open R&D positions. More than 100 additional jobs will go in administrative and support functions, union rep Thierry Bodin told Bloomberg, with an additional 155 cut in commercial.
The payroll reductions could affect manufacturing and vaccines as well as R&D, sales, and management functions, some union sources told the French media. Individual union committees will meet Thursday, Le Figaro says.
Sanofi officials assured the unions that production sites would not be closed and most of the affected employees will be offered “fully-funded” retirement packages, the French newspaper reports.
The latest round of cuts follows a series of workforce reductions in Sanofi’s French operations since 2008. The company has shrunk its payroll by about 1,300 jobs in France since 2008, in a combination of thousands of job cuts and hiring in other functions.
By Tracy Staton
Source: Fierce Pharma
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Sanofi’s global restructuring and downsizing is now fully underway, with layoffs stretching to the company’s Belgian offices. Belgian newspaper De Tijd reports that 67 employees have been laid off at a site in Ghent and 32 jobs are on the chopping block at Sanofi’s Belgium HQ in Diegem.
