DUPONT'S DRUG DOWRY DuPont Pharmaceuticals had 2000 sales of about $1.5 billion. With its acquisition, Bristol-Myers gained several important products, including the anti-AIDS drug Sustiva, the anticoagulant Coumadin, and the imaging agent Cardiolite, along with several promising compounds in development.

When the deal was announced early this summer, analysts had predicted that Bristol-Myers would cut the workforce. At the time, the company said it anticipated that cost savings and other synergies would total $500 million to $600 million by 2003. Nearer term, it expects to take a one-time acquisition-related charge of $2 billion to $3 billion for in-process R&D and restructuring.

Overlapping administrative positions are expected to be hit hard. Bristol-Myers will maintain a "significant R&D presence," a spokesman says, regarding former DuPont employees. However, at press time last week he offered no details on the job cuts as the company was just starting to notify employees.

Bristol-Myers will make most of the cuts around Wilmington, Del. Both the Chestnut Run and Stine-Haskell operations in the Wilmington area, along with those in Glenolden, Pa., are to be closed. The Experimental Station in Wilmington and the Chambers Works process chemistry site in Deepwater, N.J., will remain open.

With an estimated $19 billion in 2001 sales, Bristol-Myers already employs 44,000 people worldwide. Its Pharmaceutical Research Institute employs about 4,500 and is headquartered in Princeton, N.J., with major associated R&D operations at two New Jersey sites and one in Connecticut.

[Previous Story] [Next Story]

Chemical & Engineering News
Copyright © 2001 American Chemical Society