AstraZeneca to Cut 7,600 More Employees

The drug maker AstraZeneca plans to more than double the amount of jobs originally intended for deletion, a total of 11% of its total workforce. The firings are the result of an 11 % drop in quarterly profit which can be attributed to the 15.2 billion dollars spent in the acquisition of MedImmune.

Originally, the acquisition of MedImmune and Cambridge Antibody Technology Group to fill AstraZeneca’s diminishing pipelines was planned to cause the termination of 3,000 employees by 2010. Most of the cuts coming from European sales and marketing, unspecified R&D areas, and regulatory affairs.

“We are determined to maintain a competitive financial performance in the challenging environment that affects the pharmaceutical sector,” ceo Dave Brennan said today in a conference call with journalists, Bloomberg News reports.

According to Pharmalot, “The London-based company also reduced its earnings per share forecast for the year to $3.60 to $3.75 from a previous range of $3.80 to $4.05. Net income in the second quarter fell $1.43 billion, or 95 cents a share, compared with $1.6 billion, or $1.02, a year ago. The company was expected to earn $1.6 billion, or $1.07 a share, on sales of $7.18 billion in the second quarter, according to the median estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.”

If AstraZeneca would have placed a greater emphasis on research and development than on marketing, they would have never been in this situation. Drug companies are worried about getting more money out of the drugs that were created 20 years. If they would focus more on creating new and innovative drugs when a blockbuster drug went off patent or went belly up, they wouldn’t have to scramble to buy something to put in the pipeline.

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Joshua Daly is the author of many health related articles as well as the President of ePharmacies.com. Joshua's goal is to help consumers save money and make better informed decisions. Click here for more information on ordering from a discount online pharmacy.