Will Glaxo SmithKline layoff 6,000 workers?

Glaxo SmithKline, Britain's biggest pharmaceuticals company, plans to axe around 6,000 jobs around the world as it faces up to the growing challenges in the industry, a media report said.

The cuts are expected to include hundreds of British jobs, The Sunday Telegraph claimed.

"Competition from generic manufacturers and doubts about company's (product) pipelines are posing a serious threat to the sector and, ING analysts warned of an intellectual property meltdown as top-selling products come off patent and sales slow dramatically", the newspaper stated.

The pharma major's British rival, Astra-Zeneca, told the newspaper that it would cut 15,000 staff by 2013, 6,000 more than earlier stated, while industry leader Pfizer has acquired US rival Wyeth for $68 bn as it seeks to secure its future.

Glaxo SmithKline, the world's second biggest drugs company behind Pfizer, employs about 1,00,000 people and, although yet to be confirmed, a proportion of the cuts are almost certain to be among its 18,000 staff at sites across the UK, which would strike another blow to the battered economy, the report said.

Agencies