Company News: Plavix maker to lay off thousands

First Pfizer, then Merck, now Bristol-Myers Squibb plans to cut jobs as the pharmaceutical industry wrestles with profits being siphoned off to generic drugs.

Bristol-Myers Squibb, whose best selling product is the anticoagulant Plavix, said Wednesday it would lay off about 4,300 employees and close more than half of its manufacturing plants in a broad restructuring aimed at cost savings of $1.5 billion by 2010.

Bristol-Myers is the latest brand drug maker to reduce its work force, as the industry struggles to battle generic competition following expirations of key drug patents.

Pfizer Inc., the world’s largest drug maker, earlier this year said it plans to cut 10,000 jobs. Merck & Co. also plans to slash about 7,000 positions by the end of 2008.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said Wednesday it plans to sell its headquarters to a firm that would redevelop the site and lease a new office to the nation’s biggest tire maker.

The tentative deal would keep Goodyear’s corporate offices in Akron, Ohio, the city where it was founded in 1898.

A redevelopment of about 350 acres near downtown will replace its current headquarters and keep thousands of jobs in the city.

Interstate Bakeries Corp., maker of Hostess Twinkies and Wonder Bread, has reported a much larger monthly loss, driven by costs tied to the planned closure of four bakeries in Southern California.

The company said it lost $18.1 million on sales of $217 million during the four-week period ending Oct. 20. During the previous month, the company lost $7.7 million on sales of $220.8 million. The sales total is the lowest since it reported $204 million in January and the third-lowest since the company filed for bankruptcy in September 2004.

Jones Soda Inc.’s chief executive and founder, Peter van Stolk, will step down from the top spot at the end of the year, the premium soda maker says.

Van Stolk, who is also chairman of the board, will temporarily be replaced by two board members as the company searches for a permanent successor, Jones Soda said in a statement late Tuesday.

The company did not say why van Stolk is stepping down, but the announcement comes after the company posted a third disappointing quarter in a row. Jones Soda has also been hit by several shareholder lawsuits claiming executives and board members pushed up the share price, then sold stock before poor first- and second-quarter earnings reports caused the price to plunge. The company has denied the claims.