Affected workers at the Research Triangle Park site were told the news on February 14, with GSK confirming the lay-offs two days later after initial coyness over where the cuts were happening or how many employees would lose their jobs.
Kathy Pitman, spokeswoman for GSK, said the affected positions were in research and development - specifically jobs in late-stage clinical trial work. The company claim other aspects of its neuroscience operations, such as sales and marketing, are not affected.
“We scaled back on the early stage research,” said Pitman, “which means there's not as much coming through that needs late-stage clinical trials.”
Redundancies amongst Research Triangle Park's 4,000 employees were expected after last year's announcement that GSK would “cease discovery research in selected neuroscience areas, including depression and pain.”
The rest of the cuts are spread throughout clinical trial sites in the US - GSK also maintains a large presence in Philadelphia. None of the London-based company's other international operations were affected by this round of layoffs.
Restructuring
In February 2010 GSK hinted it would cut up to 4,000 jobs as part of a major restructuring program designed to shift the company's focus on to pharmerging markets such as China and India.
Redundancies have already been made at GSK's manufacturing base in County Cork, Ireland, with over 120 jobs lost and the real possibility of more layoffs across the company in 2011.
GlaxoSmithKline expects a difficult 2011 based on poor financial results in Q4 of 2010, which saw the company report a $1.2bn loss, primarily attributed to legal costs relating to its controversial diabetes drug, Avandia.
The former blockbuster is the subject of thousands of lawsuits claiming it caused or contributed towards cardiac arrests in patients.