Roche. In November 2010, Roche announced a companywide restructuring plan that is designed to result in annual cost savings of CHF 2.4 billion ($3.0 billion). Implementation, which is scheduled for 2011 and 2012, includes plans for reducing its workforce by 4800 positions worldwide. Most of the planned job reductions will occur in Roche's pharmaceuticals division, particularly in global sales and marketing organization and in manufacturing.

To further improve capacity utilization within its global manufacturing network, some technical operations activities will be reorganized in California, the US, Mannheim, Germany, and various other sites. In addition, Roche intends to seek buyers for its sites in Florence, South Carolina, and Boulder, Colorado. In its diagnostics group, Roche plans to close its manufacturing site in Graz, Austria, and transfer development and manufacturing activities relating to blood gas diagnostics to Rotkreuz, Switzerland, where the division's professional diagnostics unit has its global headquarters. Diagnostics chemical manufacturing and analytical services are expected to be discontinued in Mannheim, Germany, and transferred to Penzberg, Germany.

Roche will discontinue certain activities in research and early development. These include RNA interference research in Kulmbach, Germany, Nutley, New Jersey, and Madison, Wisconsin. In addition, plans also include reorganizing certain internal functions to free up resources for upcoming Phase II studies of new molecular entities.