ASTRAZENECA TO CUT 3,000 JOBS IN THE FACE OF GENERIC COMPETITION

Despite a 28 percent increase in profits and an 11 percent rise in sales, AstraZeneca will cut approximately 3,000 jobs to help with anticipated losses from generic competition, the company announced. The job cuts will happen over the next three years and will mainly affect factories.

The company's pretax profits for 2006 reached $8.5 billion, and sales for the year were up to $26.4 billion due to strong performances from drugs such as Nexium and Seroquel, the company said.

AstraZeneca noted that some of its star drugs are getting older, and will face generic competition in the coming years. Sales of heart drug Toprol-XL dropped 20 percent in the fourth quarter after a generic competitor arrived on the market in November, the company said. For the year, Toprol-XL contributed U.S. sales of $1.3 billion.

Sales of Prilosec, a heartburn treatment that also has generic competitors, dropped 12 percent in 2006, the company said.

The company's biggest performers were Nexium, Seroquel, Crestor, Arimidex and Symbicort, with combined sales of $13.3 billion, an increase of 23 percent for the year, AstraZeneca said.

Sales of heartburn drug Nexium, the biggest performer, increased 2 percent worldwide to reach $5.1 billion, according to the company. Cholesterol drug Crestor had a U.S. sales increase of 75 percent in the fourth quarter, and 57 percent for the full year. The drug's annual sales topped $2 billion for the first time, AstraZeneca said.

To help its pipeline, AstraZeneca said it will buy antiviral therapy company Arrow Technologies for $150 million. The company also recently entered a collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb to develop and market two diabetes compounds. AstraZeneca currently has 95 new chemical entities in its pipeline, it said.