AstraZeneca cuts 700 US jobs, including at Delaware headquarters

PHILADELPHIA – British drugmaker AstraZeneca is eliminating 700 jobs across the United States, including at its North America commercial headquarters in Wilmington, Del.

The company said in a statement that it “will transform its commercial business as part of the company’s return to growth strategy.”

The job cuts come as AstraZeneca continues to face a loss of patent exclusivity on medicines, the announcement said.

“We have made the necessary, but difficult decisions that are required to reflect our lower U.S. revenues in 2017. We will reduce U.S. commercial business expenses, which includes the elimination of about 700 positions (roughly 80 of those will come from existing vacancies) and a reduction in discretionary spend.”

The job cuts are in both field-based sales and field-based non-sales, AstraZeneca said.

“Out of the 700 positions impacted, approximately 120 people with roles based at the Wilmington site have been eliminated,” an AstraZeneca spokeswoman said. “The remaining impacted roles are field-based roles across the U.S. and include both sales and non-sales.”

Going forward, AstraZeneca will have about 1,500 employees working in Delaware. Wilmington is located outside Philadelphia.

“This is a reduction of roles. The impacted roles are not being shifted elsewhere,” a spokeswoman said.

In September, AstraZeneca announced it was closing its Fort Washington office, also outside Philly, and filed a notice with the state of Pennsylvania that the move would affect 134 people.

At the time, a spokeswoman said the Fort Washington jobs would, effective Oct. 3, shift to Wilmington and “there have not been any reductions as part of the decision to close the Fort Washington office.” However, some of the job cuts announced Thursday affect workers who transferred from Fort Washington to Delaware. The Fort Washington jobs included marketing, medical affairs, and sales for AstraZeneca’s U.S. diabetes business.