Faced by R&D set­backs and ques­tion­able gains, Gilead’s new CEO’s first move is to reach for the ax

Most new CEOs in the Big Bio­phar­ma world start by stream­lin­ing the pipeline and set­ting a clear course on R&D be­fore forg­ing a few new de­vel­op­ment deals and stream­lin­ing op­er­a­tions. In the case of Gilead $GILD, Daniel O’Day is get­ting start­ed by lay­ing off a sig­nif­i­cant chunk of his sales force.

The com­pa­ny said to­day it is ax­ing about 150 peo­ple in car­diopul­monary sales, rough­ly 20% of its to­tal. That’s not a big num­ber, but it un­der­scores the chal­lenges O’Day faces as he tries to right a list­ing ship.

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