Pfizer (PFE) is reducing its Swiss workforce, with plans to cut its employee count to about 70 by the end of 2025 from 300 amid a broader cost-cutting drive, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The move comes after the New York-based pharma giant recently made notable organizational changes at its unit in Switzerland, replacing the country lead, Sabine Bruckner, with Rea Lal earlier this month.
However, the former head of PFE’s Access and Value department took over the role with a diminished mandate in December, according to the people, while Bruckner, a 16-year Pfizer (PFE) veteran, took a new position elsewhere in the company.
Amid falling sales for its COVID-19 vaccine developed with BioNTech (BNTX), Pfizer (PFE) is currently undergoing a major restructuring drive, targeting more than $7B in cost savings by the end of 2027.
The maker of the Comirnaty vaccine is not the first major pharma company to downsize Swiss operations amid a new corporate tax regime that has diminished the European country’s attractiveness to multinationals.
In November, Novartis (NVS) announced plans to eliminate as many as 550 jobs at a manufacturing complex in northern Switzerland as part of an automation overhaul aimed at boosting productivity.