Print“I recognize that our plans will have a significant impact on many of our people and our stakeholders at the affected sites.”
AstraZeneca will cut as many and 3,900 jobs as the company consolidates its operations to improve its fiscal health.
The company will let go 1,600 workers and relocate about 2,500 others in a far-reaching shakeup of its R&D operation designed to reduce operational complexity and costs. Another 2,300 sales and administrative positions will be trimmed too.
The company says it will invest around $500 million to establish a new Cambridge facility, consolidating its U.K.-based small molecule and biologics R&D work while also making Cambridge its new global corporate headquarters. It estimates that the changes could save it $190 million per year by 2016, at a cost of $1.4 billion in one-time restructuring charges.
“This is a major investment in the future of this company that will enable us to accelerate innovation by improving collaboration, reducing complexity and speeding up decision-making,” says Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca's CEO. “The strategic centers will also allow us to tap into important bioscience hotspots providing more of our people with easy access to leading-edge academic and industry networks, scientific talent and valuable partnering opportunities.”
Soriot, former COO of Roche, took on the top role at AstraZeneca in October 2012. The company has since continued to reshape its approach to research and discovery, drawing on new partnerships and collaboration agreements with academic institutions, such as Vanderbilt University.
AstraZeneca sites in Wilmington, Delaware and Cheshire, U.K. will bear the brunt of the cuts. Union leaders were set to meet the company’s U.K. management team on March 20 for an annual wage and conditions review and said that they’ll discuss the planned cuts, according to the Manchester Evening News.
The changes will strategically consolidate research and development centers close to globally recognized bioscience clusters in the United Kingdom, United States, and Sweden, making it easier to access top talent and opportunities for collaboration and partnerships, and in a bid to improve pipeline productivity, the company said.
The company will maintain MedImmune's headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland, making it a center of the company's U.S.-based global development work, as well as host to some of its global marketing and U.S. specialty care commercial functions.
Mölndal, Sweden will continue to be a global center for research and development, with a primary focus on small molecules. The three strategic sites will be supported by other existing AstraZeneca facilities around the world, including one in Boston, which will continue to be a center for R&D, with a primary focus on small molecules.
“I recognize that our plans will have a significant impact on many of our people and our stakeholders at the affected sites,” says Soriot. “We are fully committed to treating all our employees with respect and fairness as we navigate this important period of change.”
March 22, 2013
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-astrazeneca_slashes_rd_sales_jobs_in_consolidation.html
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