Japanese pharmaceutical gaint, Takeda, announced Wednesday that it would be closing its Danish R&D department and laying off about 190 research workers. According to Ghita Astrup, CEO of Takeda Pharma Denmark, the closure is in line with the company’s global strategy.

“It has nothing to do with Danish conditions for R&D. It has nothing to do with the Danish salary levels. We operate on a global market, and it's a global strategy that's in play here, when the company looks at where best to create synergies and more efficient processes, and how the organisation is to be structured optimally,” she says in an interview with Medwatch.

Danish scientists

You have announced that you expect to set up about 150 new positions in England and Germany instead. What was the determining factor in choosing these countries over Denmark?

“They have assessed that England and Germany were the easiest places to combine the processes. Of course, all scenarios have been considered. Of course, we have also considered the reverse situation. But the opting-out of Denmark has nothing to do with conditions for Danish employees.”

According to Ghita Astrup, the decision mostly affects researchers placed in Roskilde – researchers that the company wants to help into new jobs.

“We imagine that these closures and relocations of positions will take place over a certain period of time, until September 2014. But it’s a suggestion and we have to negotiate with unions about it.”

Integration coming to an end

Six months ago, Takeda cut 115 positions in Denmark when the company decided to close a packaging plant in Roskilde.

“If you look at the broader picture, we have been through an integration phase, as a consequence of Takeda’s acquisition of Nycomed. It has been two years now, and that phase is coming to an end. As a natural cause of an integration process, a large, global corporation like Takeda will look at the different functions, and consider what steps to take for the future,” she says, adding:

“At the time, in February, when we announced the plans for our packaging plant, we didn’t know that these things would happen within a different function later on.”

- translated by Martin Havtorn Petersen

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