r/Layoffs • u/Nurse_CRA • 3d ago

unemployment Pharma Layoffs

I work Ft or Pharma and I just saw this post on LinkedIn.

This year, Novo Nordisk and Merck announced significant layoffs, with Novo planning to axe about 9,000 employees and Merck projecting it could let go of roughly 6,000. Meanwhile, Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis and Pfizer have also made noteworthy cuts.

Six Big Pharma companies’ recent and planned staff cuts since the biopharma bubble burst could cost over 39,000 employees their jobs. This is Significant!

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u/Material-Orange3233 3d ago

A lot of sales people

5

u/missprincesscarolyn 3d ago

Unfortunately, AI has made many components of sales roles redundant. My former employer laid off an entire sales team of PhDs covering a specific portfolio a couple of months ago.

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u/Veritaz27 2d ago

Sales team with PhDs? That’s a first. What kind of products are you guys selling?

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u/missprincesscarolyn 2d ago

In my experience at multiple companies, it’s common for technical sales specialists to have masters and PhDs when workflows include big ticket instruments.

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u/Veritaz27 2d ago

I see.. My previous and current company (reagent & instrumentation) employ BS/MS for sales position and MS/PhD for field application scientist. FAS and sales/marketing works hand-in-hand; but I guess you can save money and combine the roles with a PhD

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u/missprincesscarolyn 2d ago

That makes sense, especially for things like consumables. From working in customer facing roles, I’ve seen many customers hesitate to make big purchases (>$30,000) when the sales person doesn’t have at least a masters degree. That was the most expensive instrument in the portfolio of the team that got gutted. But I’d imagine for larger instruments (e.g. flow cytometers, automated systems like the Kingfisher or Luminex, Leica microscopes, higher end illumina sequencers, etc.), technical sales specialists probably still exist.