Philadelphia will no longer be able to call itself one of the American headquarters of British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline PLC, the company said Wednesday.
As part of a restructuring that also will eliminate 1,800 U.S. sales jobs, GlaxoSmithKline said it will designate its facilities in Research Triangle Park, N.C., as the single operational headquarters for the United States.
The company's global headquarters are in London.
Spokeswoman Mary Anne Ryhne said the headquarters designation was aimed at eliminating confusion. GlaxoSmithKline remains "committed to the Philadelphia community and to Pennsylvania. We've supported communities where our employees live and work, and we'll continue to do that."
GlaxoSmithKline employs about 5,000 people in the Philadelphia region. The company has not said how many jobs would be cut here or in any other city. Many big pharmaceutical companies, including Merck and Wyeth, have cut jobs to cope with the threat of generic competition and a lack of blockbuster drugs.
A spokeswoman for Glaxo's Consumer Healthcare unit in Robinson, which has about 450 employees, said there will be no impact on Pittsburgh-area operations from the sales force reduction. But about 60 jobs were cut here when marketing operations were moved this summer.
Research Triangle Park won the headquarters designation in part because the company owns its facilities there and leases its Center City building, Rhyne said.
Some of the jobs to be cut are already vacant, and some will be shifted from pharmaceutical sales to vaccine sales, so the net job reduction will be 1,000.
The shared headquarters resulted from previous mergers.
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