03.03.10
AstraZeneca, following up on a layoff announcement last month, will make numerous cuts in R&D and eliminate a number of therapeutic treatments. The current round will result in a net loss of 1,800 R&D personnel; the company plans to cut 8,000 staffers overall by 2014, with 3,500 cuts coming from R&D.
Major cuts include 550 employees in early-stage discovery at the Wilmington, DE site that identified Seroquel, 1,200 at its Charnwood, UK site and 900 at its research facility in Lund, Sweden. Expansions at other facilities, including Molndal, Sweden, and Boston, MA, will defray some of the losses in staff.
According to a Reuters article, AZ plans to cut drug discovery efforts in discovery in schizophrenia, bipolar disease, depression, anxiety, acid reflux, thrombosis, ovarian and bladder cancers, systemic scleroderma and hepatitis C, as well as early vaccine research in areas outside flu and respiratory syncytial virus, two areas covered by MedImmune, which AZ purchased for $15 billion in 2007. The company said it will continue developing late-stage drugs in those fields.
"AZ is going to continue to be a research-focused company. We will not diversify to the extent that some of the others are doing," development head Anders Ekblom told Reuters. "We are focusing on the diseases areas where we would like to be." He added that the company does not plan to diversify the way several of its competitors have. Also, the company hopes to sell off Arrow Therapeutics, a London-based antiviral company it bought for $150 million in 2007.