Bristol-Myers to cut another 10 percent of workforce

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY.N) said on Tuesday it would cut another 10 percent of its global workforce by 2010 as part of a cost-savings plan that had already targeted thousands of jobs.

The New York-based drugmaker declined to quantify the number of new job cuts, other than to say that 800 filled or vacant positions would be eliminated by the end of 2008.

Bristol-Myers, girding for generic competition for its blockbuster Plavix blot clot preventer and other medicines, announced in December 2007 it would cut 10 percent of its workforce, or 4,300 positions, in order to achieve cost savings of up to $1.5 billion by 2010.

The company said in July that it was expanding the cost-savings plan, aiming to reap an additional $1 billion in cumulative cost savings by 2012 through unspecified actions. At the time, it did not mention any new job cuts.

But on Tuesday, the company said another 10 percent of its workforce would have to go in order to achieve the expanded cost reductions.

"As part of the expansion of our productivity initiative announced in July, the goal is another 10 percent cut in our global workforce, with those headcount reductions continuing through 2010," company spokeswoman Sonia Choi said.

David Moskowitz, an analyst with Caris & Co, said most large drugmakers like Bristol-Myers were facing tough times.

"Overall it's just getting tougher in the new environment for pharmaceutical companies with increasing generic competition and insurance companies clamping down on what drug companies can charge," Moskowitz said.

"As a result, this is the natural consequence."

Many large rival drugmakers have also slashed jobs in order to meet earnings targets, including Merck & Co (MRK.N), Pfizer Inc (PFE.N), and British drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) and AstraZeneca (AZN.L).

"Unfortunately, for drug companies it's come down to trying to reduce costs in reaction to difficulty they're having developing and successfully launching new products, and also dealing with generic competition in a healthcare system that values cost management more than innovation," Moskowitz said.

Shares of Bristol-Myers were trading at $22.20 in after-hours activity, from their close of $22.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson and Bill Berkrot; Editing by Ted Kerr, Bernard Orr)