GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), which employs some 5,000 people across the Triangle region, is preparing to lay off hundreds of workers in the U.S., according to various media reports.

A company spokesperson in RTP, where the company operates its North American headquarters, confirmed early Monday that a reorganization is underway but would not comment on specifics.

“GSK announced a new restructuring program [on Oct. 22] to refocus our global pharmaceuticals business and deliver cost savings,” said Mary Anne Rhyne, director of U.S. External Communications for GSK.


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The restructuring plan is designed to save some $1.6 billion over three years.

The moves come as a turbulent year for the company comes to a close, from a bribery scandal in China to allegations of bribery in other country and falling drug sales of its key asthma product Advair. GSK also is moving forward with a major swap of corporate assets in a deal with Novartis. GSK was fined some $492 million China. 

“The aim of this program is to improve performance by taking unnecessary complexity out of our operations and establish a smaller, more focused, organization, operating at lower costs, that supports our future portfolio,” Rhyne said in a statement.

“Each business unit is currently deciding how to respond to this challenge.

“When we do have proposals, we will first share those with our employees.”

GSK employs several thousand people in the Triangle area at both its RTP campus and a production plant in Zebulon.

According to the Reuters news service and Bloomberg news, Dierdre Connelly, who heads GSK’s North American operations, will announce specifics of the reorganization within the company on Wednesday. Both new services cited unnamed sources.

According to Bloomberg, a management restructuring has already occurred with Connelly affected personally.

“The former Eli Lilly & Co. executive was part of a management reshuffle last month, and now reports to Abbas Hussain, Glaxo’s head of global pharmaceuticals, rather than directly to Chief Executive Officer Andrew Witty,” Bloomberg reported. 

Reuters noted that GSK “has been struggling with falling sales of respiratory drugs” in the U.S.

In October after GSK reported its quarterly earnings and disclosed the restructuring plan, Witty defended himself and the company.

“Look at what we’re able to achieve,” he said.

Witty disclosed plans to make another $1.6 billion in cost cuts on top of other recent reductions.

GSK reported a big drop in profits and revenue through the first nine months of 2014, a year so far dominated by headlines about scandals even as the drug giant accelerates development of a potential Ebola vaccine and the world’s first malaria vaccine.

“Of course it will affect jobs worldwide,” Witty said of the new expense reductions.