News Summary: AstraZeneca to cut 1,600 US, UK jobs
News Summary: AstraZeneca restructuring will eliminate 1,600 US, UK jobs, relocate global HQ
R&D REVAMP: Drugmaker AstraZeneca is shifting research and development functions around among several of its sites and spending $500 million to build a new center in Cambridge, England. It's creating three hubs near major research hot spots in the U.S., UK and Sweden.
THE GOAL: The Nexium maker's new CEO, Pascal Soriot, wants to boost research productivity, partly by increasing collaboration with outside scientists, and to lower spending. That's needed because generic competition has been reducing sales and profit.
THE COST: About 1,600 workers will lose their jobs, mainly in Wilmington, Del., elsewhere in the U.S. and in the UK.
