AstraZeneca has released more detail about its latest plans to reshape the company’s research and development program. The company, headquartered in London, plans to cut a number of disease areas, including several in neuroscience (specifically schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, and anxiety) and infectious diseases (hepatitis C and most vaccines).

As reported earlier (see ‘Pharma cuts’), the company intends to trim $1 billion from its R&D budget by 2014. The restructuring will shuffle around 3,500 of AstraZeneca’s R&D force and 1,800 are expected to lose their jobs entirely.

The Philadelphia Inquirer says 550 scientists and affiliated personnel at the Wilmington, Delaware, R&D site will lose their jobs by the end of next year. Research sites in the United Kingdom and Sweden will be shuttered. The Boston research campus, meanwhile, is expected to grow and so will “externalisation”, according to a recent presentation to investors.

It is often hard to understand how cuts to R&D will help pharma out of its much discussed “dry pipeline” quagmire. Nevertheless, cuts are often framed to sharpen a company’s focus, and AstraZeneca stock rose e’er so slightly (37 cents to $44.36) yesterday after the announcement. Still, BNET’s Jim Edwards – in his provocatively titled article “R&D? We don’t need no stinkin’ R&D!” – took the time to point out that AstraZeneca’s CEO (David Brennan) is trained as a salesman, not a scientist.