Drug maker Wyeth cutting 1,200 sales jobs

TRENTON, N.J. -- The move is part of a major companywide program, announced nine weeks ago, to cut jobs and other costs and redesign the business of Madison, N.J.-based Wyeth, which is struggling with increased competition and fewer new drugs, like most pharmaceutical companies.

Wyeth spokesman Doug Petkus said the sales representatives, in both the company's pharmaceutical and consumer health divisions, were notified Wednesday that their jobs were being cut.

"They're field-based sales reps across the U.S.," he said.

Petkus said they will get severance pay and continuing benefits. He would not say how many U.S. sales reps the company has.

In its last cutbacks, in 2005, Wyeth reduced its sales force by about 15%.

In late January, Wyeth told managers about 10% of its 50,000 employees worldwide might lose their jobs by 2011 under a sweeping reorganization dubbed "Project Impact."

On Thursday, Petkus said that estimate isn't definitive.

"We're still evaluating the composition of our global workforce," he said. "Our short-term objective is to achieve a reduction in force of 4 to 6% by the middle of the year. We are on track to achieve that."

Wyeth makes the blockbuster children's vaccine Prevnar and the world's top-selling antidepressant, Effexor, along with Advil pain reliever, Centrum vitamins, Chapstick and other well-known consumer products.

In 2007, its net income and revenue both jumped 10%. But company executives said then that new generic competition for No. 4 seller Protonix, a severe heartburn drug with 2007 sales of nearly $1.9 billion, would keep total revenue flat this year.

Four weeks ago, Wyeth won approval from the Food and Drug Administration for antidepressant Pristiq, its planned successor to Effexor, although analysts expect Pristiq to generate less than half Effexor's $3.8 billion in annual revenue. That snapped a bad streak: Since the prior spring, the FDA on four occasions had rejected an experimental Wyeth drug or demanded more data or a new patient study.