Roche slashing 300 to 400 jobs in its product development unit

Roche will be making big changes in the organization of its employees, which is estimated to be around 100,000 in number. The company is taking this step as it implements new prioritization of the works.

Announcement of change in the workforce

As part of the plans, Roche will be eliminating 300 to 400 jobs this year. The affected employees will be the ones working at the company’s product development sites.

According to Reuters, the news about job cuts was announced by Levi Garraway, the firm’s chief medical officer. Through a video call with the employees, he directly told them what the company is planning to do.

"We have made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce in PD by around five to seven percent by the end of the year," he said. "And that equates to somewhere between 300 to 400 roles that will be impacted globally."

The company knows that this is a big blow to the affected workers, so Roche will try to lessen the impact by working with employees. It was not mentioned, though, how the company intends to help those who are about to lose their position.

Who are set to lose their jobs

Based on the information shared, the Roche employees that will be cut from the company are those who are in the product development units and working in the area of project management, business management, administrative support, project delivery, managers, and posts in learning and development.

The product development sites that will cut workers are located in Canada, Britain, United States, Switzerland, and China. Those who will be laid off are set to be notified between the months of August and October, and British employees are the first ones to go.

Felix Arellano, Roche’s head of global drug safety, admitted that this is the hardest thing that he had to do since he started working for the company. He was referring to the fact that he has to send off colleagues as they have been eliminated by the company, as per Fierce Biotech.

Finally, while Roche is cutting jobs, some of the other major pharmaceutical companies are looking for more workers. Most are building new factories, so they need to hire hundreds of workers.