Pharma company Bristol-Myers Squibb has announced it is shedding another 10% of its staff.

This time last year the company announced 4,300 positions – 10% of its workforce –would go. Now it says that an additional 10% will get the chop, bringing the total to 8,000 losses by 2010 (WSJ).

Commenting on what now looks like a worrying new pre-Christmas tradition for the company, David Moskowitz, an analyst with Caris & Co, told Reuters, “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. As a result, this is the natural consequence.”

As the FiercePharma blog notes, it’s time to round up the usual suspects: the layoffs are “likely due to weak pipelines, increasing regulatory burdens, looming generic competition and (do we even need to say it?) the economy”.