London paper reports GSK cuts

DURHAM — The Sunday Times of London reported this weekend that GlaxoSmithKline will announce plans to cut 4,000 jobs on Thursday during its annual report, “of which nearly half will be in GSK’s research and development centres,” the paper wrote.

The paper noted that this will be the British drug giant’s third restructuring since 2007. While analysts say GSK’s annual profits will exceed £8.5 billion, or $13.5 billion, the new round of cost cuts will raise the company’s target of savings from $2.7 billion to more than $3.18 billion.

“It will scale down activities at research facilities in Britain, across Europe and in the United States as it builds its activities in emerging markets,” the paper said.

GSK is one of the largest employers in Durham’s Research Triangle Park, where company has its sole U.S. headquarters.

Mary Anne Rhyne, a spokeswoman for the company at RTP, declined to comment on Monday and said the company cannot release further information before the annual report Thursday at 7 a.m.

In November 2008, GSK made the RTP location its sole U.S. headquarters and announced it would eliminate 1,800 sales positions in the country before the end of the year. Earlier that year, GSK also eliminated about 100 workers from R&D in RTP and an additional 22 chemists from the Medicinal Chemistry and Oncology Department.

Blue Cross CEO Greczyn retiring

CHAPEL HILL — The top executive of North Carolina’s largest health insurer is retiring after 11 years as president and CEO.

Chief executive officer Bob Greczyn’s last day on the job at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina was Monday. He’ll be succeeded by Brad Wilson, a former Lenoir lawyer who was former Gov. Jim Hunt’s top legal adviser before joining Blue Cross in 1995.

Blue Cross last week declined to release details of Greczyn’s retirement package. His compensation was nearly $4 million in 2008, the last year the not-for-profit company made available.

Blue Cross is the health insurer for almost 40 percent of the state’s population. It said annual revenues tripled and membership nearly doubled to 3.7 million members during Greczyn’s tenure.

Drug carries risk of liver disorder

WASHINGTON — Federal health officials said Monday that patients taking a Bristol-Myers Squibb drug for HIV are at risk of a rare, but potentially fatal, liver disorder.

The Food and Drug Administration said it has received 42 reports of the disorder since Videx was approved in 1991. Four patients died from bleeding or liver failure after developing the problem, known as non-cirrhotic portal hypertension.

The problem involves dangerously slow blood flow though the liver, which can cause veins in the esophagus to swell. These veins are thin and can cause burst, causing potentially deadly bleeding.

— From staff and wire reports