Friday, September 03, 2010

Roche launches restructuring plan | Swisster

Roche launches restructuring plan | Swisster: "Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Roche announced the launch of a what it called a 'Group-wide Operational Excellence initiative' on Friday 'in view of mounting pressures to curb healthcare costs – especially in the United States and Europe'.

It's unclear how the group's 80,000 worldwide staff will be affected, though Roche said in a press release that its experts will review and analyse how the company operates over the next few months before announcing 'detailed decisions on the measures that will be taken and the potential impact on staffing levels' before the end of year.

Severin Schwan, CEO of Roche, said: 'Despite the recent setbacks, we have one of the strongest R&D product pipelines in the industry. We will focus our resources towards investments that will drive innovation and ensure the company’s long-term success, while at the same time protecting our profitability so as to safeguard our financial flexibility.'

Several Roche drug development programmes have been scrapped, delayed or hampered in recent months, while governments in a number of leading markets have introduced austerity measures designed to combat high treatment costs.

Schwan also confirmed the group's full-year outlook for 2010.

The initiative will come into force over 2011 and 2012, said Roche.

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