Josh Bloom, Medical Progress Today 6/29/12 "Mr. Gorbachev Tear Down This Lab!"
It never stops.
Anyone who keeps up with pharmaceutical industry news knows that it is impossible to go very long without seeing another round of job cuts. Sometimes, just to break up the monotony you even get to read about a plant closing.
The monotony was certainly broken on Tuesday, when Roche dropped a bomb on 1,000 employees, as well as the township of Nutley, N.J., which has been their R&D home since 1932.
The employees were summoned to the cafeteria and auditorium, where they were given boxed lunches along with the news that the campus would be shut down and they would lose their jobs. One can only imagine how bad this would have been without the lunches.
And, of course there was the usual corporate-speak statement was issued by the company: Roche is committed to handling the designated job reductions in a respectful manner and to finding socially responsible solutions for the employees affected. This includes informing employees who will be affected as soon as possible and providing appropriate plans and programs to support them during this transition process.
Translation: Expect to be eating a lot more boxed lunches.
So now Roche scientists will join the tens of thousands of us who have already dropped through the trap door, further illustrating how far the pharmaceutical industry has fallen--and also how fast. Only ten years ago, ten thousand people were employed at the Nutley site. Another pharmaceutical ghost town in the making...[Read more].