Cuando la crisis nos "alcanzó"...(II)

• Much higher percentages of biotech companies announced restructure than major pharma or biotech companies. For example, there were 32 out of 36 biotech companies (89% total) that announced restructuring actions in the last four months of 2008, whereas only 4 (or 11%) major companies announced restructuring plans during the same time period (see Table 2).

Also as the crisis was going deeper, more job positions in both industries were eliminated or slated for elimination. However, major companies began to cut much more than the small biotech. For example, in the last four months of 2008, the total workforce loss was only about 6,500, but it jumped to more than 42,000 in the first four months of 2009, an increase of 543% (Table 3).

The main contributions were from the announcements by big companies including AstraZeneca (6,000 announced in early January), Pfizer (10,000 announced in early January), Roche (1,500 announced in early March), Hospira (1,400 announced in late March), Cardinal Health (1,300 announced in early April), Johnson & Johnson (900 announced in early April).