September 14, 2009
NEW YORK (AP) — Drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co. says it will eliminate thousands of jobs and reorganize into five business units in an effort to slash costs and speed up development of potential new drugs.
The Indianapolis company says it will reduce its work force to 35,000 by the end of 2011. It has about 40,500 now, according to Thomson.
Lilly hopes to cut annual costs by $1 billion per year over the same time, and will organize itself into five units: cancer, diabetes, established markets, emerging markets, and Elanco, its animal health business.
Key Lilly products like the anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa will lose patent protection starting in 2011. CEO John Lechleiter believes the company's best path to profit growth involves focusing on its early and mid stage drug candidates.
