Pharma major Eli Lilly plans to eliminate around 3500 jobs (around 8% of its global workforce) by the end of 2017.

The cuts will include closing R&D sites in Shanghai, China, and Bridgewater, US, as well as a US manufacturing site in Larchwood. The company expects ‘the majority of the positions eliminated’ to come from a package of incentives for selected US employees to take voluntary early retirement. However, there will also be mandatory redundancies.

Lilly said it expects the cuts to lead to annual savings of around $500 million (£380 million), which it said will be ‘equally split to improve the company’s cost structure and reinvest in the business, including product launches and clinical development for new indications and line extensions’.