The move came earlier this week and involves roughly three dozen positions in safety surveillance, medical review and case management at ImClone Systems headquarters in Branchburg, New Jersey. The work will now be handled by Lilly, which owns ImClone Systems, and divided between Lilly safety teams in the US and the UK. Some employees may be offered transfers.
Although ImClone has been run somewhat autonomously, a Lilly spokeswoman says the goal is to create a seemless and comprehensive patient safety organization that doesn't distinguish between Lilly and its units.
The spokeswoman adds that the cuts are part of a much broader reorganization announced last fall in which some 5,500 jobs will be eliminated by the end of 2011 as the drugmaker tries to cut $1 billion in expenses before it loses revenue from several best sellers that face patent expirations, notably the Zyprexa antipsychotic.