AstraZeneca says it will shed 1,000 jobs in the UK, with 1,800 R&D posts to go in total

Having earlier this year said that it will eliminate 8,000 jobs around the world by 2014, including 3,500 posts in R&D, as part of a large-scale refocusing and cost-cutting for the business (The Pharma Letter January 28), Anglo-Swedish drug major yesterday revealed that up to 1,000 UK workers will lose their jobs at its R&D site at Charnwood in Leicestershire, UK, which employs 1,200 people, and a smaller facility in Cambridge will close. Some of the workers will move to Alderley Park in Cheshire, the group's largest UK R&D site. Pharmaceutical development work at the Avlon facility near Bristol will also cease.

Total job cuts are estimated at some 1,800 in the current round; the drugmaker's site at Lund, Sweden, will close, and research at its Wilmington, Delaware, USA, facility will be significantly reduced, with early-stage discovery work being halted. AstraZeneca is also considering the sale of Arrow Therapeutics, the antiviral business in London, which it acquired in 2007 for $150 million. The latest cuts are on top of the 4,000 announced in 2007.

AstraZeneca chief executive, David Brennan, in January announced that the company planned a refocusing of its R&D operations, creating so-called 'iMeds,' or research units designed to strengthen accountability and re-create a more entrepreneurial environment for research. The plan is in line with thinking at bigger UK rival GlaxoSmithKline, which is also using smaller units to promote innovation and has decided to cut out further research in certain areas, such as depression.