Takeda targets 500 local workers for layoffs

Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America Inc. in Deerfield said Wednesday it plans to eliminate 1,600 positions, including 500 locally, and close its Lake Forest facility, as part of a global restructuring expected to be completed in late June.

The company plans to reduce head count by 28 percent at the North American home office and about 20 percent at its Takeda Global Research and Development Center Inc. U.S. About 300 of the 500 affected positions are within the North American office, which supports Takeda's commercial activities. The remaining 200 jobs are in Takeda Global Research & Development in Lake Forest, which supports clinical development activities.

"This will position us for success in 2010 and beyond so we can continue the important work of research and development in order to deliver important new treatments for unmet patient needs," said local spokeswoman Kara M. Hoeger.

After the restructure, the combined Deerfield and Lake Forest work force will be around 1,650 employees, she said.

The Takeda Deerfield campus recently expanded its facilities to accommodate the research and development employees currently in the Lake Forest office. These employees will move to the Deerfield campus this summer, Hoeger said.

"As part of our agreement with Abbott, at the conclusion of the Takeda and Abbott joint venture in May 2008, there was a limited amount of time for Takeda to lease the Abbott-owned office space in Lake Forest," Hoeger said. "We did an analysis to determine how best to address our real estate needs, and it was decided that building additional space in Deerfield was the best option."

During a teleconference in Japan, parent company Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. announced plans for fiscal years 2010-2012, aiming to rein in costs as competition from generic versions of its top-selling pills slashed profits.

Takeda's net income is expected to plunge 26 percent to a decade-low of 220 billion yen ($2.2 billion) in the year ending March 2011 and fall for a further two years amid dwindling sales of the diabetes tablet, Actos, and heartburn pill, Prevacid, the Osaka-based company said.

Takeda aims to save 50 billion yen over three years by eliminating jobs mostly in the United States and Tokyo-based Astellas is trimming research and development spending.

Takeda, which had 19,654 employees at the end of March, including 10,343 outside Japan, aims to reduce its work force by about 10 percent, the company said at a media briefing.

• Bloomberg News contributed to this report.