This is Janssen’s fourth restructuring in seven years. This time around, it is partly the result of the move of staff from the Mechelen-based Tibotec-Virco facility to Beerse, which develops drugs for HIV/Aids and other infectious diseases, including tuberculosis. Tibotec will lose 41 jobs, while some 140 sales staff will be moved from Janssen-Cilag, near Antwerp, to Beerse. Staff who refuse to move will be included in the redundancy measures.

Beerse felt the axe already in 2002, when a first round of restructuring cut half of its research jobs, which now number about 300 (before the influx from Mechelen). About 460 jobs went in 2007, and another 140 last year.

Janssen has always been one of Flanders’ most highly regarded companies, with a good reputation for working conditions and industrial relations. In better times, the company researched and developed top-quality medications like anti-psychotic Haldol, diarrhoea medicine Imodium, anti-emetic Motilium and Risperdal, which is used to ease the symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

But those drugs have now passed out of patent, making it possible for the producers of generic versions to make the drugs cheaper and depriving Janssen of the income needed to finance current research for future cures. Cutbacks in health care everywhere – and particularly in the developed world – have also had an impact on the company’s revenue.

The cuts will not all be made at once: 318 will go in 2010, and a further 240 over the course of the next three or four years. The cuts are necessary to “ensure the future of the company,” according to Tom Heyman, CEO at Beerse. At the same time, the company will change its business plan, developing only high therapeutic valueadded medicines. In addition, the company will adopt an “open innovation model”, involving cooperation with outside companies and researchers within a range of 100 kilometres – which means all the way to Ghent, as well as the universities of Antwerp, Brussels, Leuven and Hasselt.

The prospect of a gradual divestment of in-house research – an absolute pillar of the strategy of founder Paul Janssens – worries unions, who see further job cuts looming in the future. “If production goes outside, we’re afraid Janssen will only keep a limited number of highly qualified people on staff and outsource all the other services,” one representative said.