US Edition 
GSK to cut hundreds of US jobs
Staff to be told this week how GlaxoSmithKline intends to reach its £1 billion cost savings over three years
Staff at GlaxoSmithKline will this week be told about hundreds of job cuts as part of a major overhaul to save £1 billion over three years.
The pharmaceutical giant, which is trying to recover from a year marred by a bribery scandal in China and lacklustre sales, will outline to employees in greater detail how it intends to make the savings, which were announced alongside its third quarter results in October.
Hundreds of jobs are expected to go in the US, GSK’s biggest market, where the company has been hit by a sharp fall in sales, especially of respiratory drugs. In the third quarter of GSK’s financial year, sales in the US of pharmaceutical products fell 12pc although vaccine sales rose 3pc.
The company has been particularly hard hit by slumping sales of Advair, its best-selling asthma and lung disease therapy, which has come under pressure from rival products, while health insurance companies in America are also trying to force pharmaceutical companies to lower the prices of long-established drugs and medicines.
Sales of Advair dropped 25pc in the third quarter in the US.
No public announcement is expected to be made on job cuts but staff in the US will be given further details on how the restructuring may affect them on Wednesday by GSK’s head of North American pharmaceuticals, Deirdre Connelly, according to Reuters.
A spokesman for GSK would not give further details.
The company said in a statement: “GSK announced a new restructuring program [on October 22]) to refocus our global pharmaceuticals business and deliver cost savings.
“The aim of this program is to improve performance by taking unnecessary complexity out of our operations and establish a smaller, more focused, organization, operating at lower costs, that supports our future portfolio. Each business unit is currently deciding how to respond to this challenge. When we do have proposals, we will first share those with our employees.’
GSK said in October that it was also looking at an initial public offering of a minority stake in its HIV business, Viiv Healthcare, next year. GSK believes Viiv could be valued at up to £15bn.