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.