Daiichi Sankyo’s U.S. layoffs will include 25 positions at Parsippany headquarters

Daiichi Sankyo Inc. today announced it will lay off approximately 25 employees at its Parsippany headquarters and 50 field employees across its regional U.S. offices, as well as another 225 open positions across the company, a spokeswoman told NJBIZ.According to the global pharmaceutical company’s website, Daiichi Sankyo has 400 employees at its U.S. headquarters in Parsippany and 300 people in global research operations in Edison. Daiichi also has six U.S. sales offices in Atlanta; Chicago, Charlotte, Dallas, Phoenix and the Basking Ridge section of Bernards Township, with a total of 1,500 employees.
While the downsizing initiative won’t affect the Edison research location, spokeswoman Marah Oberfield said the Parsippany headquarters will cut about 6 percent of its current work force, though she did not know if any employees based out of the Basking Ridge sales office will be laid off, and she would not provide the number of people currently employed there.
Additionally, Oberfield said she did not know if any open positions among those two New Jersey locations will be removed, but as of this afternoon, the company’s careers webpage lists a total of 31 open business operations and finance positions in Parsippany. Oberfield said that webpage has not yet been updated to reflect the layoffs.
“We proactively let our employees know a few weeks ago that after a careful analysis of our business plans and current organizational structure, the company decided to reduce the U.S. commercial workforce,” Oberfield said in an e-mail. “While the company is on track to achieve 2012 business objectives, and our development pipeline includes potential new product launches in 2015 and beyond, we are taking measures today to prepare for anticipated, near-term business challenges.”
Oberfield would not specify those challenges, but in its latest financial report, Japan-based Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. said its net sales in North America between April 1, 2012, and Sept. 30, 2012 declined 2.1 percent year-over-year in U.S. dollars.