Nov. 29 (UPI) — German pharmaceutical giant Bayer said Thursday it will cut 12,000 jobs — 12 percent of its global workforce — following its acquisition this year of U.S. company Monsanto.
Bayer said it expects annual contributions of $3 billion from 2022 on, due to planned efficiencies and measures that include the job cuts. The company employs about 118,000 people worldwide. Many of the jobs will be cut in Germany.
“Details will be worked out in the months ahead,” the company said in a statement Thursday.
Bayer said the money saved from the reduced payroll will help “strengthen innovation and competitiveness.” The company will invest $40 billion before the end of 2022 — two thirds in research and development and the rest in capital expenditures, said Bayer board chairman Werner Baumann.
Baumann added that Bayer aims to position itself as a “life science company.”
For its consumer health business, the company said it will “exit from product categories that have more development potential outside of Bayer” — and review options to exit the sun care and foot care niches, with brands like Coppertone and Dr. Scholl’s. it will also leave the animal health sector.
The company said in June, upon its $66 billion merger with seed and chemical giant Monsanto, that it will not adopt the St.Louis-based company’s name.
Two months after the merger, a U.S. jury awarded $289 million to a man who sued Monsanto saying its Roundup weed killer gave him cancer.
More than 9,000 people in the United States have sued Monsanto over its glyphosate herbicide, Frankfurter Allgemeine reported this month.
