AstraZeneca to cut 1,150 US sales jobs
Will take a charge of US$50m to US$100m in Q4 2011
AstraZeneca is to cut its US sales force by nearly a quarter as it seeks to reduce costs as it faces generic competition and pricing pressures.
The company said approximately 1,150 leadership and sales positions would be eliminated. They come on top of 400 US job losses announced in October.
Globally the firm has about 61,000 staff, with 14,000 in North America.
As a result of the job cuts, AstraZeneca will take a charge of US$50m to US$100m in the fourth quarter.
Rich Fante, president of AstraZeneca US, said: ‘These are difficult decisions that impact valued employees.
‘The changes we are making, however, will help us deliver better results for our business and, most importantly, continue delivering on our mission of patient health.’
The job cuts will vary across geography and selling teams, and employees may volunteer to leave, the company said, with decisions finalised by February 2012.
AstraZeneca said the redundancies are part of a restructuring started in January 2010.