AstraZeneca eliminates 7,300 jobs in major restructuring

AstraZeneca, Britain's second-biggest drugmaker today announced a major restructuring that would see the elimination of further 7,300 jobs and close one R&D centre in order to bring in savings of $1.6 billion and reduce costs by $2.1 billion.

The Anglo-Swedish company will cut 7,300 jobs or 12 per cent of its global workforce by 2014. AstraZeneca employs 8,000 people in the UK and 61,000 globally.

AstraZeneca will cut about 3,750 jobs in sales, general and administration, 2,200 in research and development, and another 1,350 in operations.

Union workers say that between 250 - 350 jobs could go at the company's Research and Development site in Alderley Park, Cheshire.

The staff reduction come over and above the 12,600 positions already eliminated by CEO David Brennan between 2007 and 2009, and a further 9,000 employees were made redundant by the end of last year.

Brennan said in a statement, ''Since 2007, when we announced our first major restructuring programme, we have taken decisive steps to improve returns on investment, recognising that this demands concerted, enterprise-wide action.