AstraZeneca has decided to close a research centre in the UK, resulting in a loss of up to 1,200 pharmaceutical jobs.
In a statement, the company said it had shared with its employees further details of proposals designed to improve the productivity of its global research and development organisation.
“The proposed changes, first outlined at the end of January, include focusing research efforts on a smaller number of disease areas and consolidating activities on to a reduced global footprint through the merger of some sites. Some of our sites will close,” stated the company.
The Loughborough site is expected to close by the end of 2011. A smaller facility in Cambridge is also to close, the company said.
As per the information available, AstraZeneca is Loughborough’s second-biggest employer after the local university. The 69-acre site specialises in research into finding medicines for respiratory diseases such as asthma, chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
The company said it was also interested in selling its Arrow Therapeutics business, which occupies a small facility in London.
In other changes, the firm said pharmaceutical development work at the Avlon facility near Bristol will end, with some roles transferring to Macclesfield or Alderley Park in Cheshire. The number of people working in research and development at Alderley Park will increase as employees transfer from other sites. A total of 3,500 research and development jobs will be cut across the world, including the UK, Sweden and the United States.
The company told staff on Tuesday that it would continue research in all current therapy areas, but within these sectors, it would stop discovery efforts in around 10 specific diseases. Discovery is to be dropped in thrombosis, acid reflux, ovarian and bladder cancers, systemic scleroderma and hepatitis C. It will also stop researching psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety and will abandon the discovery of vaccines for conditions other than respiratory syncytial virus and influenza.
Last month, the company mentioned that research-based pharma is an attractive business for the long-term. The sector can grow at least in line with real GDP growth long term, and the sector’s best players will earn attractive returns on capital.
AstraZeneca said earlier this year that it will cut 8,000 jobs around the world by 2014, including 3,500 in research and development, as part of a large-scale refocusing of the business.
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