Action Insight | Written by ActionForex.com | Jan 14 07 10:19 GMT | Forex Weekly Review and Outlook Focus Turning to Inflation Data and BoJ after an Exciting Week Sterling staged a strong broad based rally last week after the surprise rate hike from BoE. Dollar was, indeed mixed as even though it rose against Euro and yen, it’s more because of their own weakness. Dollar weakened against Sterling, Canadian dollar and Australian dollar during the week. Meanwhile, Euro was pressured,...
AstraZeneca to shed 3,000 jobs
February 3, 2007 on 2:41 am | In |
The moves, which will be focused on the production side of the business, were announced as Astra said annual profits rose 28% to $8.54bn (4.36bn).
Delivering a performance in line with City expectations, Astra said sales of its five key growth products - including cholesterol-lowering product Crestor - had been strong.
But it warned that the company, as well as the industry, needed to face up to the challenges posed by patent expirations and pricing pressures brought about by governments and private sector firms.
As a result, the company said it had taken ‘a further step in its drive to improve productivity’.
Astra employs around 65,000 people worldwide, including 2,500 at its main base at Macclesfield, Cheshire. It has a number of other sites around the UK, including at Avlon near Bristol.
The company did not provide details about where in the world the jobs might go. It said the moves were subject to consultations with unions and works councils.
Today’s cuts come a week after fellow pharmaceuticals company said it would take 10,000 jobs from its global headcount over the next two years.
Astra pointed out that tight management of costs should allow for significant growth in research and development investment in 2007. It added that continued sales momentum from its key products would result in sales growth in the high single digits in 2007.
Last year, Astra saw sales for the full year increase by 11% to 26.47bn US dollars (13.51bn). The key five growth products within the Astra portfolio achieved combined sales of 13.32bn US dollars (6.8bn), up 23% for the full year.
As well as Crestor, the top-selling portfolio features stomach acid reducer Nexium and Seroquel, which can ease symptoms of manic depression.
The forecasts for 2007 excluded any contribution in the US from Toprol-XL, the company’s hypertension drug which is facing generic competition.
Astra is under pressure to improve its pipeline of drugs following the failure of diabetes product Galida and blood clot prevention drug Exanta.
Other stories:
AstraZeneca ditches stroke drug
Glaxo gets over launch delays
AstaZeneca boosted by big five
AstraZeneca snaps up Cambridge Antibody
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