Schering Plough announces substantial Q4 loss

Pharmaceutical giant Schering-Plough said today it had made a loss of $181m (€143.9m) in the fourth quarter, against profits of $313m (€248.9m), a year earlier.

The loss was led by a decline in sales and special charges of $229m (€182m) related to a voluntary retirement program.

Sales fell 18% to $1.9bn (€1.5bn), including a favourable currency impact of 6%, mainly due to a 55% decline in sales of the company's Intron hepatitis treatment.

Looking forward Schering-Plough CEO Fred Hassan said 2004 "will the year of repair and cleanup, bridging to an expected turnaround starting in 2005" .

The company announced last December it aims to cut payroll expenses by 10% to achieve $200m (€165.32m) in cost savings this year.

The company employs approximately 1600 people in Ireland. The bulk of which are employed in Cork and Wicklow in pharmaceutical manufacturing