Brixham Environmental Laboratory to close
AstaZeneca move puts more than 70 jobs at risk
Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca has announced plans to close Brixham Environmental Laboratory in Devon, UK, putting 71 jobs at risk.
The laboratory provides services to assess the impact of pharmaceuticals and chemicals on the environment.
AstraZeneca says the work undertaken at the laboratory ‘is outside the organisation’s strategic focus of developing innovative new medicines’.
Under the proposals, the services currently provided on the site in Brixham will be sourced from third parties.
Tony Broughton, Head of UK Operations at AstraZeneca, said the move was ‘difficult news’ for staff, but the company’s priority is to ‘support them over the coming months’.
Broughton said that ‘operating an environmental laboratory for the benefit of AstraZeneca and customers across a range of industries is not a core part of our strategy’.
He added that the decision to close the site had been made ‘after serious consideration’.
AstraZeneca is ‘exploring a range of options for the future of the site’ and, if possible, would like ‘to see the laboratory remain in use for scientific purposes’.
Business operations at the laboratory will cease by the end of March 2014.
