French drugmaker Sanofi to cut about 200 jobs in Japan: source

By Rocky Swift

TOKYO (Reuters) - French drugmaker Sanofi SA <SASY.PA> plans to cut about 200 jobs in Japan across sales, regulatory affairs and operations, a person familiar with the matter said, months after the company said it would shed nearly 500 jobs in France and Germany.

The cuts at the world's seventh-largest pharmaceutical company by revenue would extend to back-office positions such as IT and human resources, said the person, who declined to be identified as the information was not yet public.

A Sanofi representative said, "Sanofi Japan plans to implement a voluntary retirement programme in order to adapt to the external environment changes and to transform our business models to continue our growth".

The company declined further comment, saying it does not disclose details of internal operations in Japan.

Sanofi does not give a breakdown of its staff in Japan. As of December, it employed 5,864 people in Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Puerto Rico.

In June, Sanofi said it would cut 466 research and development jobs in Germany and France, in a bid to concentrate its research efforts in cancer, immunology, rare diseases and vaccines.

Last December it said it would shed 670 jobs in France. The company has a global workforce of more than 100,000.

(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by David Dolan and Clarence Fernandez)