Multinational pharmaceutical companies expose layoffs again! AstraZeneca announced nearly 100 job cuts

Less than two years ago, AstraZeneca announced plans to invest millions of dollars in upgrading its Macclesfield plant in the UK However, on March 27, AstraZeneca announced that it would cut the factory's staffing and cut nearly 100 jobs, which the local trade union in Macclesfield said would have a huge impact on the British manufacturing industry AstraZeneca will cut 94 jobs at its mcersfield plant in Cheshire, northwest England, according to the GMB Union, which will be completed by 2020 The macelsfield plant is the second largest manufacturing plant under AstraZeneca, which mainly produces the traditional prostate cancer drug Zoladex To the outside world's doubt, AstraZeneca said that the scale of the layoff is not large, the net number of layoffs will be less than 30, and new jobs will be added at the same time In addition, about 30 of the 94 layoffs are temporary workers who do not renew their labor contracts The layoff is not necessarily due to the poor performance of AstraZeneca's drugs In February this year, AstraZeneca released its 2018 annual report, with a total sales volume of US $21.049 billion and a year-on-year growth of 4% This growth was driven by strong fourth quarter results, with AstraZeneca achieving $5.768 billion in sales in the fourth quarter of 2018, an increase of 5% Although the annual increase is not high, it has ended the years of decline in AstraZeneca's performance since 2011 due to the successive expiration of several heavyweight patent products It is understood that the factory has about 3500 employees in various businesses, including it and science and manufacturing departments, with about 900 workers Not long ago, British pharmaceutical companies invested $50 million in the factory's packaging projects After the upgrade, AstraZeneca said that its production efficiency had improved significantly, and the GMB union said that the increase in efficiency also means that fewer employees are needed to maintain production The company has held layoffs talks with staff on Monday Stephen Boden, the organizer of GMB, said in a statement that AstraZeneca's decision to slash its workforce was "a blow to manufacturing in the northwest and the UK as a whole." A spokesman for AstraZeneca said, "we have started to discuss with our packaging staff some changes that the business needs to make, which will affect some existing job assignments The reason for the change is to ensure that mclesfield remains a competitive supplier of key drugs for patients around the world At the end of the 2020 process, we expect less than 30 employees to leave As we have just started talking with our employees, it is not appropriate for us to discuss further details of the layoff "Like other companies, AstraZeneca has been rethinking the distribution of its global manufacturing network Earlier this year, AstraZeneca announced plans to close two plants in Boulder and Longmont, Colorado, and cut 210 workers stationed there At that time, AstraZeneca gave the reason for layoffs to further streamline its supply chain system of bio pharmaceutical products, while AstraZeneca also said that this is part of its current global restructuring As the uncertainty of brexit has affected the future economic prospects of the whole UK, Arizona also announced the suspension of investment in British manufacturing industry In October last year, AstraZeneca president Leif Johansson told Le Monde in France that if the future of brexit remains unclear, the company will maintain its decision not to invest, Reuters reported In addition, AstraZeneca has two other businesses in Cheshire, including Alderley Park R & D center, whose functions and staff will be relocated to the New Cambridge headquarters in the UK, and Speke vaccine research team near Liverpool It is not clear whether the jobs of these businesses will be affected by the layoff, and AstraZeneca also responded to the news Meanwhile, the construction of AstraZeneca's New Cambridge headquarters has been repeatedly delayed, and it is reported that the construction cost of the project has exceeded the original budget In its 2018 annual report, the company said it expects to start using the building from 2020, after expecting it to be fully operational in 2019 In recent years, there seems to be a trend of layoffs in the global pharmaceutical industry A series of large multinational pharmaceutical companies, including Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, Novo Nordisk, and small and medium-sized star biomedical companies like Genentech, as well as even multinational companies, including Tyva, which mainly focus on generic drugs, have entered the layoff period in recent years, with dozens, hundreds of fewer and more It even involves tens of thousands of people Specifically, cost cutting, focusing on advantageous business and strategic structure adjustment have become the main reasons for the announced layoffs of these multinational pharmaceutical enterprises However, in a deeper level, behind the frequent layoffs of multinational pharmaceutical enterprises, there are more dramatic changes in the industrial pattern and the reshaping of the market pattern Predictably, whether it is due to global strategic adjustment or large-scale M & A transactions, in the next 2019, layoffs may still be a key word of the whole pharmaceutical industry Reference link: [1]] AstraZeneca to cut nearly 100 jobs at U.K site as efficiency 'Hammer' workers [2] AstraZeneca cuts 94 jobs from UK campus [3] worrying jobs news for Macclesfield as AstraZeneca set to shed 'nearly 100 roles'