AZ cutting 1,600 jobs worldwide, 650 from US

Via FierceBiotech:

Looking to revive a strugging R&D operation, AstraZeneca's new CEO has outlined a global research reorganization that will require moving thousands of its scientists and other staffers in the U.S. and Europe into key clusters while laying off 1,600 others. Part of the plan calls for the company to shutter its major research efforts at Alderley Park and invest $500 million in a new R&D complex in Cambridge, U.K., to consolidate its small molecule and biologic research in the country under one roof, as the company ($AZN) concentrates its efforts in regions where it already has a big presence. 

In its release, AstraZeneca says it will reduce its head count by 1,600, while relocating 2,500 jobs. The restructuring will cost about $1.4 billion.  

The new strategy will eliminate some 650 jobs in the U.S., with 1,200 jobs being removed from Wilmington, DE--which remains the company's North American headquarters--and 350 jobs moving to Gaithersburg, MD. 

Best wishes to them, and to all of us.