AZ drops the ax

Astra Zeneca has started the 2010 bloodletting by announcing 8000 layoffs as it attempts to reduce costs ahead of anticipated drops in revenue over the next few years. AZ had already announced about 13000 job cuts which, coupled with newly announced plans, will certainly amount to significant financial increases. However R&D is also going to be affected as AZ said that it will be consolidating it's in house development projects in favor of looking elsewhere to establish partnerships with other companies on promising products. One thing of note is that AZ is following in Pfizer's footsteps by trimming down its internal R&D focus areas to concentrate on a smaller number of products instead of a shotgun approach.

Read more in the UK publication, the Telegraph

It's usually small biotechs that make news when they announce plans to go public. This time though, it's a bit different as Otsuka plans to go public sometime soon. According to Reuters this would make Otsuka the 4th biggest drug firm by value and serves to be a good investing opportunity for people usually hesitant about buying into an IPO because Otsuka already has a number of marketed products along with a good R&D pipeline

The Reuters article is here