Johnson & Johnson announced today that they’d be laying off 900 employees from their Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceutical business unit. Most of the positions on the chopping block are in sales, a representative said.
This is just part of an overall hiring freeze and position reduction plan for the company, though they’re mum on just how many employees will be laid off when it is all said and done. They currently employee about 119,000 people around the world. Ortho-McNeil-Janssen alone have several divisions.
Almost all pharmaceutical companies have laid off employees recently, and the economy is only partly to blame. Within the past few …read more

Today, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) announced a collaboration with two Japanese pharmaceutical companies to develop NTC-801, a treatment for atrial fibrillation.ith this agreement, Nissan Chemicals and Teijin Pharma Limited will grant the company exclusive rights to commercialize the product in any country outside of Japan.
Rights like that don’t come cheap. Bristol-Myers is paying $40 million upfront, with up to $170 million more during development and up to $175 million more based on sales. They could also have to pay additional royalties based on licensed product sales.
While that’s a huge chunk of change, it could be a good thing for the company, …read more