LONDON (Reuters) – AstraZeneca is cutting a further 7,300 jobs and expects earnings to fall 14-18 percent this year as patents on key drugs expire and governments in Europe and the United States squeeze prices.

Britain’s second-biggest drugmaker said on Thursday the latest phase of cuts, equivalent to 12 percent of the workforce, would deliver an extra $1.6 billion in annual benefits by the end of 2014. It will cost $2.1 billion to implement.

The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker faces loss of exclusivity on many of its top-selling drugs over the next five years and has few obvious replacements in its pipeline.

The antipsychotic medicine Seroquel, its second-biggest drug, will lose exclusivity in the United States in March and also goes off patent in European countries this year.

As a result, Chief Executive David Brennan has been shrinking the business. “The further expected losses of market exclusivity make for a challenging 2012 outlook,” he said.

The company has already implemented two earlier rounds of cutbacks involving 21,600 job losses since 2007, which has reduced its worldwide headcount to 61,000.

The gloomy outlook weighed on the shares, which fell 3 percent by 3:30 a.m. ET, underperforming a flat European drugs sector.

LONDON, Feb 2 (Reuters) – AstraZeneca is cutting a further 7,300 jobs and expects earnings to fall this year as patents on key drugs expire and governments in Europe and the United States squeeze prices.

Britain’s second-biggest drugmaker said on Thursday the latest phase of cost cutting would deliver an extra $1.6 billion in annual benefits by the end of 2014. It will cost $2.1 billion to implement.

The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker faces loss of exclusivity on many of its top-selling drugs over the next five years and has few obvious replacements in its pipeline.

The antipsychotic medicine Seroquel, its second-biggest drug, will lose exclusivity in the United States in March and also goes off patent in European countries this year.

As a result, Chief Executive David Brennan has been shrinking the business. “The further expected losses of market exclusivity make for a challenging 2012 outlook,” he said.

The lack of obvious replacements for products like Seroquel and heartburn treatment Nexium, as well as top-selling heart drug Crestor which goes off patent in 2016, has triggered speculation AstraZeneca may need to make a big acquisition.

Following the poorly received purchase of MedImmune in 2007, the company has so far eschewed another large deal. But that strategy could be up for review, especially with the group casting around for an outsider to replace current chairman Louis Schweitzer.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s health cost watchdog NICE sparked a major row on Thursday by snubbing a pricey new prostate cancer pill discovered at the country’s top cancer research centre, a decision critics said was bad for patients and research.

If the draft ruling is upheld after further consultation, Zytiga, which is marketed by Johnson & Johnson, will not be reimbursed on the state-run National Health Service (NHS).

The drug was hailed as a significant advance by cancer doctors after a clinical trial showed it extended the lives of patients with advanced prostate cancer by an average of 3.9 months. Unlike many cancer medicines, it can be taken at home.

It was quickly approved by U.S. and European regulators last year, but Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) said it did not provide enough benefit to justify the high cost, even with a discount offered by J&J.

Zytiga, also known as abiraterone, is taken once a day as a single dose of four tablets and costs 2,930 pounds ($4,600) for a 30-day supply.

J&J has offered a discount, the size of which is confidential, and it is possible that further haggling might produce an acceptable pricing deal — but leading cancer charities are alarmed by the impasse.

The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), whose scientists discovered the medicine, said it hoped NICE would now work with J&J to find a solution.

LONDON, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Britain’s health cost watchdog NICE sparked a major row on Thursday by snubbing a pricey new prostate cancer pill discovered at the country’s top cancer research centre, a decision critics said was bad for patients and research.

If the draft ruling is upheld after further consultation, Zytiga, which is marketed by Johnson & Johnson, will not be reimbursed on the state-run National Health Service (NHS).

The drug was hailed as a significant advance by cancer doctors after a clinical trial showed it extended the lives of patients with advanced prostate cancer by an average of 3.9 months. Unlike many cancer medicines, it can be taken at home.

It was quickly approved by U.S. and European regulators last year, but Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) said it did not provide enough benefit to justify the high cost, even with a discount offered by J&J.

Zytiga, also known as abiraterone, is taken once a day as a single dose of four tablets and costs 2,930 pounds ($4,600) for a 30-day supply.

J&J has offered a discount, the size of which is confidential, and it is possible that further haggling might produce an acceptable pricing deal — but leading cancer charities are alarmed by the impasse.

The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), whose scientists discovered the medicine, said it hoped NICE would now work with J&J to find a solution.