Astra to axe another 7350 jobs as drugs woe grows

Britain's second-biggest drugmaker - which employs 8000 in the UK, mainly in Cheshire - cut 12,600 jobs between 2007 and 2009. It began more cutbacks in 2010, which it said would lead to the loss of 9000 more jobs by 2012.

But the failure of new drugs means it set out plans to pare back costs further, saving just over £1 billion a year by 2014 with the latest job cuts.

Up to 300 of the job cuts will be at Astra R&D site in Cheshire. "This is a blow to Britain's research and development base," said Linda McCulloch of the Unite union. "If the company can afford a 10% hike in its dividends, then it can afford to retain these roles."

Astra said that during 2011 it lost almost $2 billion (£1.3 billion) in revenues after blockbuster drugs faced generic competition. Its heartburn drug Nexium fell out of patent in Europe, and $1.5-billion-a-year cancer drug Arimidex also saw cheaper rivals enter the market.

But the full impact of Astra's "patent cliff" is yet to be seen. Nexium and Seroquel, the pharma giant's best-selling bipolar drug, brought in combined revenues of $10.2 billion last year, and both will have generic competitors in the massive US market from 2014.

The drugmaker said it was also suffering from penny-pinching governments in Europe and the US cutting their drugs bill. Astra said it lost $1 billion last year because of "the impact of government price interventions".

However, Astra still managed to increase revenues by 1% to $33.6 billion in 2011. Pre-tax profit grew 13% at $12.3 billion.

It admitted it expects 2012 revenues to fall in the "low double-digit range". Chief executive David Brennan said: "The further expected losses of market exclusivity make for a challenging 2012 outlook."

The bareness of Astra's drug cabinet was highlighted in December when two of its major pipeline drugs, for ovarian cancer and depression, failed to hit targets. It today said that it expected its new products and pipeline would contribute between $2 billion and $4 billion to sales by 2014, down from a forecast of between $3 billion and $5 billion a year ago.

AstraZeneca also said it would begin a $4.5 billion share buyback scheme and raise its dividend by 10%. But the shares today fell 101p, or 3.3%, to 2988.5p.