Around 500 staff at AstraZeneca have been asked to apply for voluntary redundancy as part of the firm’s latest staffing restructure – with as many as 270 jobs being potentially lost.
The news comes just a week after the pharmaceutical company announced a £120m investment in a new site in Macclesfield to produce prostate cancer drug Zoladex, which means the creation of 200 new jobs.
The drug giant, which operates from sites in Hurdsfield and Alderley Park, announced in March that it would reduce the number of IT staff reduced by more than a half over the next three years.
A spokesman for the company said: “At our Investor Day in March we set out our commitment to dramatically simplify our organisation and our processes, while creating an innovative environment for our staff.
“Reviewing our IT function is part of this work to drive productivity improvements and support the company’s strategy to achieve scientific leadership, return to growth and be a great place to work.
“In line with this aim, we recently announced internally that some IT roles will be relocated and there will be some headcount reductions within our IT organisation.
“The headcount reductions are a component of the headcount impact we announced on March 21.
“Approximately 500 IT staff are currently based at the Macclesfield and Alderley Park sites in Cheshire. This will be reduced to between 140-230 through role relocations and reductions.
“In line with the timing we set out in March, these changes will take effect between now and 2016.”
