Up to 1,217 GSK employees in Belgium are at risk of losing their jobs as the Big Pharma rolls out its global cost-saving strategy.
The layoffs—first reported by Belgian newspaper L'Echo—will be spread across R&D, manufacturing and support functions, Fierce understands.
The restructuring forms part of GSK’s “accelerating growth” strategy that was first announced in July. At the time, GSK CEO Luke Miels explained that the pharma was seeking 1.9 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) in annual cost-savings by 2029 to fund the program.
Belgium is home to three main sites for GSK’s vaccines business: Gemboux, which is focused on vaccine storage; the vaccine division’s headquarters and manufacturing site in Wavre; and Rixensart, which is the company’s historic center for vaccine R&D.
GSK employs around 8,500 people across the country, according to the drugmaker’s website, making it the largest pharma company in Belgium.
Part of the reasons behind the layoffs is due to some over-capacity in GSK’s vaccine supply chain in Belgium, Fierce understands. The company's best-selling vaccines include the shingles vaccine Shingrix and the meningitis vaccines Bexsero and Menveo.
In practice, the restructuring of R&D roles in Belgium is designed to help the company focus resources on priority pipeline projects, Fierce understands. Meanwhile, the reduction in manufacturing roles intends to align the organization and industrial capacity with evolving global demand for certain vaccines, while the global support functions will be simplified.
A GSK spokesperson confirmed to Fierce this morning that the proposed changes in Belgium are “part of the three-year global programme we set out earlier this year to simplify our organisation and re-allocate capital and resources towards our promising late-stage pipeline of new medicines and vaccines, and R&D.”
“This is designed to drive strong operational performance and shareholder returns over the next five years, delivering near and long-term growth and much-needed new treatments for patients,” the spokesperson added.
When explaining the global cost-saving program to journalists in the summer, CEO Miels pointed out that about 45% of the required savings would come from “better procurement.” This would focus on “areas that are not on the frontline of our labs,” such as “all sorts of systems and consultants and various other partners [and] support functions.”
Belgium marks the second country where GSK has restructured its footprint as part of the cost-savings initiative, following some changes to support functions in Poland that began last month.
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