Bristol-Myers to cut another 10 pct of workforce

"As part of the expansion of our productivity initiative announced in July, the goal is another 10 percent cut in our global workforce, with those headcount reductions continuing through 2010," company spokeswoman Sonia Choi said.

David Moskowitz, an analyst with Caris & Co, said most large drugmakers like Bristol-Myers were facing tough times.

"Overall it's just getting tougher in the new environment for pharmaceutical companies with increasing generic competition and insurance companies clamping down on what drug companies can charge," Moskowitz said.

"As a result, this is the natural consequence."

Many large rival drugmakers have also slashed jobs in order to meet earnings targets, including Merck & Co (MRK.N), Pfizer Inc (PFE.N), and British drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) and AstraZeneca (AZN.L).

"Unfortunately, for drug companies it's come down to trying to reduce costs in reaction to difficulty they're having developing and successfully launching new products, and also dealing with generic competition in a healthcare system that values cost management more than innovation," Moskowitz said.

Shares of Bristol-Myers were trading at $22.20 in after-hours activity, from their close of $22.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson and Bill Berkrot; Editing by Ted Kerr, Bernard Orr)