Bayer plans to lay off further managers in its pharmaceuticals business this year.

Cuts are planned in Germany, Japan, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands as part of the Group's reorganization, Sebastian Guth, the member of the Board of Management responsible for the division's operating business, told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday. The Leverkusen-based company has already cut around 40 percent of its management positions in the pharmaceuticals business in the USA and has also made cuts in Canada, Mexico, Italy, Australia and the Nordic countries.

Guth did not put a figure on exactly how many jobs the company has cut in these countries, but noted that "40 percent is about the range we normally see - some are a little below and some a little above". "We're not aiming for a specific number," Guth said. "For a company of our size, there's just a lot of work being done that ultimately doesn't add value for customers or products." In his opinion, the new organizational model introduced by CEO Bill Anderson is already paying off. For example, Bayer has been able to shorten the timetable for applying for approval of a higher dosage of the eye medication Eylea in Europe by around a year.

Anderson had already announced that the new organizational model would involve a considerable reduction in personnel - at the expense of many managers. He wants to reduce hierarchies, eliminate bureaucracy, streamline structures and speed up decision-making processes. He had rejected the idea of splitting up the pharmaceutical and agricultural group, which some investors had called for, for the time being.

(Report by Michael Erman, written by Scot W. Stevenson and Patricia Weiß, edited by Birgit Mittwollen; if you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets)).