The bleeding continues. AstraZeneca is eliminating up to 625 jobs from its operations in Germany in response to difficulties replenishing its product pipeline and pricing cuts imposed by the government, according to a statement on its web site. The cuts are being made due to “delays in the research and development of new drugs as well as to massive state intervention in the pricing of innovative medicines,” the drug maker says. In the scheme of things, 625 positions is not a huge number of job cuts, given the thousands that have been shed by the pharmaceutical industry, including AstraZeneca. Earlier this year, for instance, the drugmaker announced plans to slash 7,300 jobs. It is not clear if the job cuts in Germany are part of this previously announced plan. We asked a spokeperson for comment and will update you accordingly. As we wrote previously, those cuts are designed to save $1.6 billion annually by the end of 2014 and underscore the fallout expected from patent expirations on some of its biggest sellers, notably the Crestor cholesterol pill, the Nexium acid reflux med and the Seroquel antipsychotic.
