Pfizer is rumoured to be cutting around 600 jobs from its primary care business this month, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The said person, who asked not to be named because they weren’t authorised to discuss the matter publicly, was speaking to the news agency Bloomberg this week.

The company’s primary care business has a number of key drugs, including the big sellers: pain killer Lyrica, ED drug Viagra and arthritis drug Celebrex.

“As part of our strategy to allocate our resources, investments and people to the areas that best serve our patients and customers, we continually evaluate how we can be more efficient and effective,” Mackay Jimeson, a Pfizer spokesman, told Bloomberg.

“As a result, we are making changes in some segments of our field force to better match the future needs of the business.”

Before the firings, Pfizer had about 3,000 primary care salespeople and managers, according to PharmaForce International, which tracks pharma sales forces and provides market intelligence.

This comes after Pfizer lost patent protection for its biggest selling drug Lipitor in all key markets this year, decimating the once $12 billion in peak annual sales it was bringing in.