MANCHESTER, England, March 1, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Some of the
world's largest pharmaceutical firms announced this month they would be cutting
thousands of medical sales jobs in order to slash costs and keep investors
happy, exposing the worrying dilemma facing the industry.
Biopharmaceutical giants AstraZeneca were the first to announce further job
cuts with another 7,300 positions to be axed in 2012. The company has already
seen an extraordinary amount of job cuts over recent years with some 12,600
posts removed between 2007-2009 and a further 9,000 last year.
The company blames a mixture of a rise in generic drug firms, pricing
pressure and falling returns on drug discovery as the main causes for the
increase in job losses in recent years.
The UK currently prescribes some of the cheapest medicines and drugs in
Europe according to the Department of Health and the Government has planned to
switch to a system of 'value-based pricing' in a bid to promote innovation
within the industry.