London - Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca announced Thursday that it was planning to cut 1,400 jobs and close three plants in Europe in a programme to "improve efficiency across the business."

AstraZeneca will close sites in Spain (Porrino), Belgium (Destelbergen) and Sweden (Uema), executive vice-president David Smith said in London.

By 2013, a further 1,400 jobs would be cut at factories in Britain and Sweden, in addition to 7,600 job cuts announced in 2007.

"The introduction of new manufacturing processes has brought further opportunities to drive efficiencies across the global supply chain," said Smith.

The company expected to cut costs by an annual 1.4 billion dollars from 2010, he said.

Smith said AstraZeneca would increase investment in its plant in Wuxi, China, to "support the company's continuing growth in the Asia Pacific markets."

Part of this investment would provide additional packing and formulation capabilities and would enable Wuxi to become the packing centre for Asia Pacific. (dpa)