Bosses at AstraZeneca will today be urged by trade union officials to reconsider plans to relocate 1,600 jobs from Cheshire to Cambridge by 2016.
A crunch meeting between executives of the pharmaceuticals giant and Unite officials will discuss the scheme to build a new research and development centre in Cambridge, switching staff from its Alderley Park site in Cheshire.
Tough talks: AstraZeneca's current premises in Macclesfield, Cheshire, from which staff could be moved
Unite regional officer Gary Owen described the move as a ‘massive blow for the North West’ and said it would be a ‘real struggle to relocate families hundreds of miles away to East Anglia’.
The company, which is moving its global headquarters from central London to Cambridge, is also slashing 700 jobs at Alderley Park and shipping 300 more overseas.
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Astra is battling the ‘patent cliff’, where blockbuster drugs lose their patent protection, opening them up to competition from low-cost generic medicines.