Closing subsidiaries, laying off teams... A new round of "self-rescue" for pharmaceutical companies begins

 On January 12, 2022, Daiichi Sankyo announced that it would close all of its South San Francisco-based Plexxikon operations, which will operate until the end of March
.
Founded in 2001, Plexxikon is a subsidiary acquired by Daiichi Sankyo for $935 million in 2011.
It has two marketed anticancer drugs and six clinically launched drugs
.
The purpose of this adjustment to close the Plexxikon business is to maximize the concentration of resources on the development of 3 major ADC products
.
The three ADC products are Enhertu, Dato-DXd and HER3-Dxd
.
According to Daiichi Sankyo, the concentrated development of these three ADCs is one of Daiichi's main growth strategies in the future
.
The three antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), Enhertu, Dato-DXd and HER3-DXd, are antibodies associated with toxic drugs that enable more precise drug delivery
.
Among them, Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) is an ADC targeting HER2, and they cooperated with AstraZeneca
.
The drug has been approved for the treatment of HER2-positive breast and gastric cancers and is expected to generate sales of $1 billion or more
.
AstraZeneca paid $1.
35 billion upfront for the rights to the drug in 2019, and the deal has the potential to hit $6.
9 billion
.
Dato-DXd is an ADC targeting TROP2 in lung, breast and other cancers
.
It is reported that AstraZeneca paid $1 billion upfront for the drug in 2020, and the total value of the deal could exceed $6 billion
.
HER3-DXd, a HER3-targeting ADC currently in advanced lung cancer trials
.
For the development of these three ADC drugs, Daiichi Sankyo stated that it will adopt the "3 and Alpha Strategy" to first maximize the therapeutic potential of the three major ADC products, and at the same time develop subsequent potential important varieties, including DS-7300, DS -6000
etc.
Analysts said that nowadays the competition in the pharmaceutical industry is becoming more and more fierce.
Under the fierce competition, pharmaceutical companies have carried out "self-help" through various forms, such as restructuring, laying off teams, and divesting businesses
.
It is reported that in addition to the above-mentioned companies making strategic adjustments by closing their subsidiary businesses, Pfizer recently reported the news of abolishing the sales team
.
According to Reuters, Pfizer believes that it is developing into a biopharmaceutical company that is more focused on innovation and will change the way it interacts with people in the medical business in the era of increasing digitalization, so it will make personnel changes to ensure that it has the right people.
resources to meet the changing needs of the market
.
However, Pfizer did not specify the specific headcount reduction in this statement
.
In addition, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals of the United States recently announced a strategic reorganization
.
According to the restructuring, the company will lay off 30% of its workforce, prioritize its late-stage product opportunities, namely poziotinib and ROLonTIS (eflapegrastim), cancel work on its early-stage clinical development programs FIT Program (IGN 002) and IL-12, and will to centralize resources while substantially reducing the footprint of its selected factories
.
The author was informed that in December 2021, a number of pharmaceutical companies also announced layoffs.
For example, Biogen plans to lay off as many as 1,000 employees in order to save up to $750 million to deal with the controversy about Aduhelm
.
Eli Lilly will disband the PD-1 sales team and hand over the product to Xinda, a domestic innovative pharmaceutical company
.
UCB Pharma announced a layoff plan, saying it would adjust the staff of the Parkinson’s team,
etc.