Pfizer plan to cut 19,000 off its global workforce

Drugmaker Pfizer has raised its earnings forecast and said profit fell less than analysts expected.

The company said job cuts offset falling revenue from the Lipitor cholesterol drug and the Norvasc blood pressure medicine.

Net income for the world’s biggest drugmaker dropped 19% from a year earlier to $2.26bn (€1.55bn), or 34 cents a share, the New York-based company said last night.

Profit excluding some items was 48 cents a share, beating by 1 cent the average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Pfizer employs about 2,000 people in Ireland. Pfizer has been in Ireland since 1969 and employs more than 2,000 people at six pharmaceutical plants and three financial services and support centres. It is best known for its plant at Ringaskiddy in Co. Cork, which makes the ingredient for erectile dysfunction drug Viagra.

It has other plants in Loughbeg and Little Island in Cork and Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin.

Revenue fell 9.4% to $11bn (€7.7bn), hurt by generic competition to Norvasc and Lipitor, the world’s best-selling drug.

Pfizer has cut more than 14,000 jobs since 2007. It plans to eliminate another 19,000 following the planned acquisition of rival drugmaker Wyeth. “They’ve done a wonderful job at cost management and this is just a preview for when they consolidate Wyeth,” said Tony Butler, an analyst with Barclays Capital in New York.

Chief executive Jeffrey Kindler is cutting jobs and reorganising research as Pfizer braces to lose patent protection in 2011 on Lipitor, which accounted for about a quarter of the company’s 2008 revenue.

Sales of Lipitor fell 10% in the quarter. Demand for the cholesterol drug has been falling since 2006 when generic copies came on the market.

Norvasc sales fell 17% to $518 (€363m) on generic competition.