The staff reduction will be carried out over the next three years, and is the first swathe of job cuts in the company's plans to reduce its workforce by 3,000 by 2010 in line with restructuring plans to increase productivity and cost efficiency.
The Macclesfield site currently has facilities for bulk drug manufacture, formulation and packing, and AstraZeneca says the plant will remain one of the largest worldwide manufacturing and supply sites despite the reduced headcount.
" Macclesfield will continue to remain a major supply and manufacture site in our supply chain ," confirmed Chris Dalton, AstraZeneca UK's head of external affairs.
In the face of challenges posed by patent expiry and pricing pressures from government and the private sector, AstraZeneca is one of many pharmaceutical companies hastily restructuring in order to try and improve productivity and efficiency as well as cut costs.
" In order for manufacturing and supply at Macclesfield to become competitive, it is clear that we must change our ways and become more efficient ," said AstraZeneca's head of UK operations and Macclesfield site manager, Dapo Ajayi.
Further efforts on the part of the company to increase competitiveness and strengthen its pipeline have also included a planned £63.5m (€94.6m) investment in a new process research and development laboratory at the Macclesfield site.
"The restructuring and productivity measures at AstraZeneca's Macclesfield site will help us to be more competitive in an increasingly challenging business environment," said Dalton.
"The site continues to be an important, integral part of our global manufacturing and supply operation.
These changes, together with our major R&D investment, further underline our commitment to the Macclesfield site."
The new large-scale lab represents the biggest single investment to date at the Macclesfield site, and is intended to facilitate the discovery and development of manufacturing routes for the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in potential new medicines.
The new building will house around 170 people, though most of these will be existing employees.
There is, however, enough flexibility at the site for the company to employ a further 50 people.
Construction at the site will begin as soon as possible, and the lab is anticipated to become operational by mid-2009.
More job cuts There has been speculation this week regarding job cuts at Bayer Schering Pharma following reports in a German newspaper of 1000 jobs set to go at the firm's Berlin plant.
When Bayer announced the takeover of Schering last year, the company warned that it would be cutting up to 6000 jobs worldwide.
While representatives of the company could not comment on the rumours reported about the Berlin job cuts or the origin of the story, Oliver Renner, head of global public relation and public affairs at the company did tell In-PharmaTechnologist that the company is currently preparing details regarding forthcoming workforce reductions, and is in discussions with works councils and employee representatives.
Details of any job cuts could be expected at the beginning of March this year, said Renner, as the works council has invited employees for an informational meeting where the job losses could be formally announced.