Dive Brief:
- Boehringer Ingelheim will lay off 724 employees across the U.S., including 49 at its Ridgefield, Connecticut regional headquarters, according to a notice filed with the Connecticut Labor Department.
- The job cuts will affect Boehringer employees nationwide, but will primarily affect the company's sales divisions, reports BioSpace.
- Two days earlier, Boehringer announced an asset swap with Sanofi, sending Boehringer's consumer health division to the French drugmaker in return for Sanofi's Merial animal-health unit. It is not clear if the layoffs are related, however.
Dive Insight:
The job cuts, which are expected to be completed by August 31, continue an ongoing corporate restructuring. Boehringer has laid off employees a number of times in recent years, including a round of 900 job cuts in 2014.
Boehringer has moved to withdraw from the generics business and decided to shift away from the consumer healthcare market. In an April press conference, Andres Barner, chairman of the board of directors, indicated maintaining enough critical mass to survive consolidation in those markets would have required considerable investment.
Instead, Boehringer has doubled down on animal health with the asset swap for Sanofi's Merial unit. The deal will nearly triple the size of Boehringer's business in that sector. After the deal closes, Boehringer will command an estimated 14.3% of the global animal-health market.
But the biggest boost could come from its diabetes drug Jardiance, which it is co-marketing with Eli Lilly. The two companies made history when a study showed Jardiance significantly decreased the risk of cardiovascular-related events, including death, marking the first time a diabetes drug was clinically proven to have a cardiovascular benefit.
Moreover, the approval of Praxbind, a reversal agent for BI's oral anticoagulant Pradaxa, should help Boehringer gain additional traction in that market.
Last year, Boehringer reported €14.8 billion in total net sales, up 4.1% when adjusted for changes in currency. Operating income was €2.3 billion, representing a 15% return on net sales.