I’m told by several people that Tuesday Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) is announcing layoffs in research (and perhaps other areas). I don’t know how extensive these are, or how they’re spread across the New Jersey and Connecticut sites. What I do know is that accounting practices make these things especially rough, since a disproportionate number of such cuts takes place before year’s end, which doesn’t do much for anyone’s holiday season. (Of course, I suppose it could be even worse – you could be working for Pfizer (PFE), and spend the holidays not knowing if your job was going to be there in January or not). In a smaller but deeper cutback, I also note that Entremed (ENMD), a company that’s been struggling to survive ever since its turn in the spotlight with Judah Folkman’s anti-angiogenic peptides, has announced that sixty percent of its employees will be let go. Since that includes the CEO and CFO, you have to conclude that the situation there is not good.

Having been through the layoff process myself, I know what the people involved are going through, and I wish them every hope of landing new positions. If anyone out there knows of companies that are hiring now in research, or even planning to, I’d be glad to list such in a separate post in order to provide some leads.

Q2 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

August 12, 2008 10:30 am ET

Tektura is the first new type of blood pressure drug to be approved in 10 years, and the U.S. is the first country to approve it. The once-daily oral medication is said to work well alone and as an adjunct to other blood pressure drugs. All of this gives every indication that Tekturna will become a blockbuster billion-dollar seller for Novartis. In the blood-pressure market, Novartis currently sells Diovan, the single biggest contributor to its revenues at $4.2 billion annually. The patent on Diovan expires in 2012. The shares of Novartis ran up $3.31 to $56.85, an increase of 6.2%.

Coley will turn its attention to a preclinical program specializing in synthetic RNA-based drugs that stimulate Toll-like receptors. Discontinuing the hepatitis C program will save Coley about $15 million per year in research expenses. The company says it has enough money to continue for three years without a fresh infusion of capital. Given the news, Coley did well to drop by only 11%. The stock was off $1.12 at $8.77.