Bristol-Myers to Slash 5,000 Jobs in New Restructuring : Pharmaceuticals: The move is designed to make the nation’s third-largest drug concern more competitive.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said Tuesday that it will slash 5,000 jobs as part of a restructuring designed to make the languishing drug company more competitive in an increasingly difficult environment.

Over the next two years, 3,500 workers will be let go; 1,500 have elected to leave this year under an early-retirement program announced in September, Bristol-Myers spokesman Jon Weisberg said.

The move comes little more than a year after the nation’s third-largest pharmaceutical concern said it was trimming its worldwide work force by 6%, or about 2,200 jobs, amid pressure to keep the lid on drug prices.

Bristol-Myers took an $890-million pretax charge in the 1992 fourth quarter to cover costs associated with those cuts as well as any future restructuring activities. Weisberg said that charge will adequately cover costs incurred under the new restructuring program.

The company said in a statement that the restructuring, which will affect its four core units as well as its headquarters staff, is designed to “align its businesses with the changes taking place in the global marketplace and to improve its overall competitiveness.”

Analysts and investors generally applauded the move. “What they’re now doing is overdue and absolutely necessary,” said Neil Sweig, an analyst with Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co.

Bristol-Myers closed at $58.75, up $1.25 on the New York Stock Exchange.

But several observers questioned whether the restructuring goes far enough.

“I don’t think this is the last chapter in the book,” said Paine Webber Inc. analyst Ronald Nordmann. “There could be additional head count reductions and additional business unit formations that would allow them to adapt.”

As managed care increases its presence on the health care landscape, drug makers have been forced to cut prices and court large purchasers such as health maintenance organizations and other third-party payers who demand discounts.

Bristol-Myers said its U.S. sales force will be organized into 12 regional business units “supported by a strengthened managed care operation and a marketing staff with a structure which reflects the changing status of health care buyers in the United States.”

Each of the company’s salespeople will now be able to offer a full range of Bristol-Myers products, rather than focusing on narrower groups of products.

Many industry observers have said Bristol-Myers has long been in need of a restructuring. Once a consistent performer with years of double-digit earnings increases, it now has flat sales and modest earnings per share.

While the restructuring “eventually will be beneficial, none of it will save the bad year Bristol-Myers is going to report for 1993,” Sweig said. Each of the company’s core businesses--pharmaceuticals, medical devices, non-prescription health products and toiletries and beauty aids--is expected to either post a decline in sales of about 1% or gains of no more than 2%, he said.