R&D Re-Org 2013

I should have been keeping the statistics.

But my guess is that GSK's re-org rate is increasing. Kinda like contractions coming faster and faster. Can only imagine what kind of Rosemary's baby type of abomination will emerge this time.

I work in PD in RTP, and I think the EDS group (and its predecessor departments) has re-organized every year for the last five years or so. They are the all-time record holder in re-org rate. And currently led by a hodge-podge of untalented misfits who don't have the breadth of skills required to run a department responsible for everything from compound selection, API synthesis, API release, Formulation development, drug product release up through Phase II - all of this with about 15 people. Constant blunders coming from that group. They are the poster child for everything PTS has done wrong. Tried to get everyone to do everything with shrinking head count.

 

Same ol' same ol'

 

Baldoni is the problem. Period.

 

Hey- The good news is that the analytical staff in the project teams are going to be moved into High Throughput Analytical Testing.

I heard that there are 2 goals for these new staff in HTAT:

- They should be able to identify an HPLC 2 out of 3 times in a laboratory setting &
- They should be able to figure out which end of the HPLC you put the samples into.

You project analytical staff should mark these as ASMART objectives on your PDP for 2013.
Good luck!

 

Now THAT is funny!

 

Closing RTP. Closing UM. Closing UM. Take your pick of which rumor to believe.

Current management really believes that drugs come from somewhere magical outside of GSK R&D, and GSK continues to need to cut costs in order for the upper people get their reimbursement; they have little interest in the welfare and health of GSK, of making new drugs, in trying to maintain jobs. Their problem is very simple: the US stock market goes up and up; GSK stock muddles downward despite an increase in dividend and stock buy backs. So what is the priority of Sir Witty and Co? 1) Protect and / or increase jobs in the UK even if that comes at expense to jobs elsewhere, 2) make sure they look good to the British elite 3) look for what is next after the GSK financial golden cow gets too ill hide and 4) keep ahead of "them revenue'ers".

 

Well, the first cannons have been fired. The end is certainly not in sight. Good luck to all.

 

Keep calm and carry on.

 

Yes SIR, Will DO, John.

 

ho hum another reorg another recylced org chart another recycles leadership team

simply turned clock back 15 years to departments oraganised on which degree you have rather than on which project you're working on

am glad to see MJ gone, he was Baldoni Jr. believed in technology more than people and completely failed to achieve any sort of technology innovation or breakthrough

 

Well, its official now. UM is closing. UP is expanding.

RTP is in limbo awaiting 5-year plan from Chairman Baldoni.

 

PD hasn`t been re-orged as a whole since 2010 when Tainsh was in charge so it is incorrect to say reorgs are happening every 5 minutes (I paraphrase).
FP&A, ACA etc have stayed the same for those 2-3 years. The new groups will be line disciplines so we have analytical, formulation, synthetic chemistry etc. It is a valid way to run it and explains why Annette was brought in since if someone internal had been chosen (who you would have criticized as just rearranged existing staff) they would have kept the same structure.

What is interesting is how the robustness group get organized.

 

Are you saying that you are comfortable with PD's reorg rate? I never heard anyone say that.

What is interesting is how EDS and Second Generation/Process Robustitty groups are retaining the mixed department model, while the 'middle bits' of PD are reverting to old fashioned departments based on college degrees. Apparently, Annette sees some value in mixed departments. I've people suggest that it is easier to cross charge services if an entire department is supporting a particular DPU.

Only obvious benefit to me in the old style degree-based departments is that it gives greater flexibility in assigning available analysts to whatever project needs them. This is contrary to the 'increasing scientific expertise' rationale that is being proclaimed. It fact it is the opposite. It is just creating a pool of analysts to receive samples from the drive through window. No surprise that group was originally called 'high through put analytical chemistry.' That exactly describes the actual intent of the new structure - converting analytical sciences to a fast food service. The benefits of increased flexibility of having an 'analyst pool' comes directly at the expense of maintaining PROJECT expertise. Our projects are very complicated they require analysts and formulators collaborating for YEARS on a project. The sample drive through window will erode project expertise.

GSK had previously organized by discipline and it lead to silo warfare. Departments were more interested in their own objectives and protecting their own head count than with supporting goals of the project teams. Formulators wanted a million samples anaylzed to support every possible formulation and analysts didn't want to analyze anything unless they were sure the results would inconclusively solve the problem. All departments were obsessed with special technology initiatives that never produced a tangible benefit - just pretty posters to display at the all too frequent 'science brag days.' Hard to imagine what will be different this time.

Always fun to watch as PD goes through these pendulum swings.

 

You hit it exactly on the money! Everything you said is so true! OMG

 

easy to predict the future when you're driving in circles

 

So Annette will hold a PD-Global town hall meeting on Wednesday 22-May - - anybody want to speculate on what she will say?
Where will the concentrations occur (which means some sites will cease those activities) & for which activities?
Has she mentioned a target for headcount reductions?
Everyone seems to be on a little on edge - - somewhat irritable, reduced banter in the hallways, also I guess everyone is dusting off their resume, and updating their contacts on Linked-In.
Get ready for the BIG BOHICA ......

 

RTP = shrinkage
UP = erection

 

Usual lies: thanks GSK mgt

A few months ago when GSK announced the site consolidation the official GSK spokeswoman said there were no planned lay-offs. Two months later we have lay-offs. Either someone is lying or they developed the lay-off plans in last two months.

Never did believe anything GSK mgt told us. Never will.


"Glaxo spokeswoman Melinda Stubbee said there were no planned layoffs in this portion of the corporate consolidation. However, Glaxo will also move a unit from Cambridge, Mass., to Upper Providence, but not all 60 employees in that unit will be offered jobs in the new location."


Full story:

Glaxo to consolidate employees in Montco facilities
By David Sell, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: March 14, 2013

Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said Tuesday that it would consolidate Philadelphia-area employees, with about 1,900 moving from two facilities in Upper Merion to an existing facility in Upper Providence during the next two to four years.

Glaxo spokeswoman Melinda Stubbee said there were no planned layoffs in this portion of the corporate consolidation. However, Glaxo will also move a unit from Cambridge, Mass., to Upper Providence, but not all 60 employees in that unit will be offered jobs in the new location.

Patrick Vallance, Glaxo's president of pharmaceuticals research and development, delivered the news to employees Tuesday via a global webcast from Upper Merion.

"Part of the vision is to create a work environment for the next 10 to 20 years that is vibrant and gives people a chance to work side by side," Stubbee said. "It made sense to have most of them in one location."

Glaxo has about 1,650 employees in what it calls Upper Merion East and Upper Merion West, off Swedeland Road. When the moves are completed, about 400 will remain in the East facility, and the rest will move to Upper Providence. The West facility has about 1.2 million square feet and probably will be sold, Stubbee said.

Glaxo rents about 200,000 square feet in the Renaissance Corporate Center on Renaissance Boulevard in Upper Merion. The lease there will not be renewed and the approximately 630 employees will move to Upper Providence.

Glaxo, which is based in London, also is finishing a move of about 1,300 employees from offices at Franklin Plaza in Center City to a new building in the Navy Yard, for which it signed a 15-year lease.

Glaxo's 2012 full-year profit was $7.43 billion, a decline from $8.55 billion in 2011. During a conference call with reporters after the financial results were released in February, chief executive officer Andrew Witty said the company would close some manufacturing facilities in Europe, which has had the greatest revenue declines, due in part, to government price pressures.

Witty said Glaxo also hoped to save an additional $1 billion a year by 2016 with greater use of enzyme technology in the production of medicine. Witty estimated that one-third of Glaxo's research was "amenable" to this process. Boiling down the science, he said enzymes will do the work of heat and pressure in part of the production chain, thereby reducing the need for solvents and big factories.

"We've made a significant commitment to Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley," Witty said in February. "Some of the R&D facilities will benefit from what we've talked about today. How that affects our footprint, we'll have to see."

Contact David Sell at dsell@ phillynews.com or 215-854-4506. Read his blog at www.philly.com/phillypharma and on Twitter @phillypharma

 

When the company continues to lose sales, net income and profits quarter to quarter, year to year, then there will continue to be downsizing.
When there continue to be fewer projects to work on, and little basic research done internally to discover new possible targets and strategies, then there will be downsizing.
When there is downsizing, then people will be laid off.
This should not be a surprise to anyone. Closing UMW is just a way to give focus to it all, but has little to do with the inevitable loss of more jobs.

 

Gracias Captain Obvious.