Eli Lilly USA says it is laying off hundreds of sales reps.
Spokesman J. Scott MacGregor says the cuts will be minimal in the Indianapolis area and most of the cuts will be equally absorbed among workers in all 50 states.
"We planned for this well in advance," he says. "This is not something that has happened as a result of the underlying fundamentals of our business. We‘re actually performing very well."
MacGregor says the cuts come as Lilly is about to lose patent exclusivity on its popular Cymbalta and Evista brands. He says the pharmaceutical maker will lose Cymbalta in December and will say goodbye to Evista in March of 2014.
MacGregor says both drugs will become available in the marketplace as generics. He says they accounted for about 20 percent of Lilly‘s global corporate revenue in 2012. MacGregor adds that while it is losing those brands, it‘s working on revving up its presence in diabetes treatment.
He says they have products in late stage development.