AstraZeneca in Mölndal - new units
The direct consequences of the new units in Mölndal are that it brings competence, capital and vibrancy to the Göteborg Region. Business Region Göteborg welcomes the people from Lund, Charnwood and Södertälje to the Göteborg Region.
AstraZeneca describes itself as a global, innovation-driven, integrated biopharmaceutical company with a focus on six areas of healthcare. These include some of the world´s most serious illnesses: cancer, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infection, neuroscience, and respiratory and inflammation. To further advance the delivery of medicines which make a meaningful difference to patient care, AstraZeneca recently announced that it would concentrate its R&D efforts into fewer, more entrepreneurial units in a narrower range of disease areas, as well as spend a greater proportion of funds on projects with external researchers.
One consequence of this strategic reorientation involves the closure of two research units: Lund in the south of Sweden and Charnwood in Loughborough in the UK. Both locations are specialized in respiratory and inflammatory diseases which will now be transferred to the Mölndal site just south of Göteborg.
The buildup in Mölndal is currently on-going and will be completed by the end of 2011. The integration is proceeding well. Everyone across all three locations is working hard to realize a world class Respiratory & Inflammation research capability alongside the established areas of Cardiovascular & Gastrointestinal.
According to AstraZeneca the direct consequences of the new units in Mölndal are that it brings competence, capital and vibrancy to the Göteborg Region. It´s still too early to say how many people that will be transferred to the Mölndal site, but it will probably a couple of hundreds. Today there are around 2.300 people working for AstraZeneca in Mölndal.
Representatives from Mölndals Stad, the surrounding municipalities, international schools, Swedish Public Employment Service, relocation companies and Business Region Göteborg have been and will be participating in workshops that are being arranged for the people from Lund and Charnwood. Trips are organized to Mölndal for employees and their families. To date we have had six two-day visits for well over two hundred colleagues from both Charnwood and Lund and these visits will continue during the fall.
We want to welcome the people from Lund, Charnwood and Södertälje to our region. If they end up accepting a job offer at the Mölndal site they will not only work in the Göteborg Region, they will live here. It´s important for them to get information about where they can live, where the schools and pre-schools are and so on. It´s also of importance that the spouses feel that there will be job opportunities for them as well. According to AstraZeneca, “the majority are pleasantly surprised with what the region has to offer in terms of schools, culture, academic centers, housing and recreational opportunities".
Author: AstraZeneca & Ulrika Wahlström
