Allergan is laying off 577 workers from its headquarters in Irvine, California on June 4, according to an online list of job cuts in the state.
A total of 674 staff members have been let go from Allergan’s operations in California so far since 2014.
Last summer, 500 staff members were cut from the Irvine location. Another 40 were let go from the Carlsbad branch. And 134 staff members lost their jobs after Allergan decided to shut down an additional office in Goleta.
FiercePharma’s Tracy Staton reports Allergan’s CEO David Pyott had launched a plan in July 2014 to simultaneously slash expenses and satisfy investors during the period when Valeant Pharmaceuticals was aggressively trying to acquire Allergan for $53 billion.
Part of Pyott’s strategy involved eliminating 1,500 jobs before the end of the year among other measures in order to save $475 million, but Valeant had wanted to reduce at least $2.7 billion in annual costs within the first six months.
By November, Allergan agreed to be bought by Actavis for $66 billion after questioning Valeant’s business model and cost-cutting ideas.
Staton wrote that executives from Actavis “were talking about…[making]… $1.8 billion in savings, most of it within the first year,” in addition to Allergan’s already announced cuts once the merger went through.
The next phase of pink slips in June would bring the total number of lost employees to 1,251 for Allergan since this procedure started in the fall, whereas Actavis cut 248 staff members from its Corona, California office.
No indication has been made as to when this downsizing process will end for either company.
Filed Under: Drug Discovery
