Typical Roche move over the years...
The M&A activity has pharmaceutical employees nervous. A large number of layoffs over the past decade has already forced many big-pharma workers to seek jobs elsewhere.
Some have found it hard going. Scott Nass, 49 years old, lost his job as an account manager for Roche Holding AG ROG.VX +0.07% in Nutley, N.J., in 2009, when Roche gained full ownership of Genentech Inc. After a two-year stint helping Princeton University raise money to support academic research, Mr. Nass is now a substitute high-school teacher and looking for full-time work.
Mr. Nass said he finds it hard to get back into the health-care business. "I am quite bitter. It's been a painful process and I am disillusioned as to how decisions are made in the industry," he said.
Others have remained in the industry—often finding work in smaller drug companies or in contract research organizations, which conduct clinical trials for pharmaceutical companies.