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Like most of big pharma, Sanofi is facing stiff generic competition in the U.S. Some of its biggest sellers, from sleeping pill Ambien to the cancer drug Eloxatin, have gone generic, and one of the biggest is yet to come: the blood-thinner Plavix is set to lose patent protection in the U.S. in 2011.

Although Sanofi recently got the heart drug Multaq approved for sale in the U.S., it has generally done a poor job of replacing its big sellers when they lose patent protection — which means fewer sales reps are needed.

Before today’s cuts, Sanofi’s U.S. sales organization had 6,500 people, spokesman Jack Cox told the Health Blog. This includes sales reps and office support staff, he said. By our calculation, the cuts reduce that group to 5,750 people, though Cox said it’s not such a simple calculation because some of the 750 losing their jobs can apply for about 200 posts that are now open. He said he couldn’t put a number on the size of the post-cut sales group.

“This decision was necessitated by a number of factors – shifting customer needs, the diminishing effectiveness of traditional marketing practices and, for some of our key brands, generic competition,” Cox said.

The “diminishing effectiveness” remark is telling: it means doctors no longer call the shots in many parts of the country, as payers increasingly decide which drugs can be prescribed. Many other big pharma companies are cutting sales jobs for the same reason, as well as shrinking headcounts in other areas.

Sanofi has been trimming its U.S. sales force for several years now. Back in February 2008, Sanofi honcho Hanspeter Spek said the company had cut the size of its U.S. sales force by about 18% over the previous two years, to about 7,800 people.

If the group was 6,500-strong before today’s cuts, it looks like Sanofi had done some serious trimming between February 2008 and today. Cox said he didn’t have any details on that.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

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The agreement announced by both companies today is the latest effort by Japan’s pharamaceutical industry — Dainippon is the country’s No. 7 drug maker by sales –- to reach overseas to replace revenue streams as patents expire on domestic products. Earlier deals have included Takeda spending almost $9 billion to buy Millennium and Eisai shelling out nearly $4 billion for MGI Pharma.

Sepracor has patent issues of its own, however, as Lunesta and another big seller, the asthma treatment Xopenex, are set to lose protection in the next few years, notes Dow Jones Newswires. Lunesta’s sales already have been hurt by competition from generic versions of Sanofi-Aventis’s Ambien.

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Still, Dainippon plans to seek U.S. approval soon for its antipsychotic drug Lurasidone. And Sepracor’s U.S. presence could help the company market the drug in this country.

Still, there are skeptics about the wisdom of the deal — the company will have to take out a bridge loan for more than $2 billion to pay for the deal.

Source: The Wall Street Journal