Merged BMS-Celgene to offer ERP after all

Downsizing focused on marketing and sales including executive-level

Top-level severance pay to double service year and add premium

Initially merged with almost no downsizing, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and Celgene have ultimately decided to slim down the organization in South Korea.

 

According to the pharmaceutical industry sources, BMS Korea has recently decided to issue the Early Retirement Program (ERP) as a result of acquiring Celgene.

 

The staff reduction would focus on marketing and sales, which would also include executive-level layoffs.

 

The compensation would be severance pay worth additional eight months on doubled service years, which would add up to maximum 48 months (standard pay) plus more premium.

 

The offer is considered one of a top-level ERP condition ever offered by a multinational pharmaceutical company in South Korea.

 

In last March, BMS has announced newly formed divisions and new head personnel for the Business Unit (BU).

 

At the time, the multinational company integrated the Oncology and Hematology Departments.

 

Although some employees with overlapping positions left the company, but official downsizing did not take a place.

 

Nevertheless, the delay in immunotherapy Opdivo (nivolumab) coverage expansion, sales stagnation and pricing reduction and generic launch of off-patent Eliquis (apixaban) seemed to have affected the decision to provide ERP.

 

In January last year, BMS has decided to acquire Celgene for USD 74 billion (86.40 trillion won).

 

The Celgene acquisition was processed with cash and stock transaction, and the legal process is still in progress at the moment.

 

Through the acquisition, BMS has also obtained anticancer therapy Revlimid, and the next-generation immune CAR-T cell therapy option, taken over from a deal with Juno Therapeutics