AstraZeneca reorg to cut 1,600 jobs in US, UK

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — British drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC is eliminating 1,600 jobs, mostly in the U.S. and United Kingdom, under a global restructuring meant to reduce costs and make research programs more productive.

The cuts amount to nearly 3 percent of AstraZeneca's 57,200 workers around the world. The world's fifth-largest drugmaker by revenue also will move its global headquarters from London to Cambridge, England, by 2016.

In the U.S., AstraZeneca will scale back its site in Wilmington, Del., eliminating about 650 jobs and shifting 550 more to other company locations.

About 300 of those jobs will be moved to Gaithersburg, Md., home to the company's MedImmune subsidiary and the main location for AstraZeneca's research on biologic drugs. It will take over Wilmington's role heading global medicine development for both pills and injectable biologic drugs.