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(Repeats Sunday story with no changes)
* Most marketed and pipeline drugs invented elsewhere
* Global drug companies agnostic in sourcing best science
* $106 bln Pfizer bid stirs up political storm on job fears
By Ben Hirschler
LONDON, May 11 (Reuters) - How British is AstraZeneca? Witha French chief executive, Swedish chairman, 40 percent of itssales in the United States and 87 percent of its staff overseas,the answer is not simple.
Formed from an Anglo-Swedish merger 15 years ago, even itsroots are only half British. Yet a $106 billion takeover bidfrom U.S. group Pfizer has forced politicians atWestminster to line up in defence of British jobs and science.
The pharmaceuticals group, which is fighting the approach,is an important science anchor for Britain and has close ties totop universities. However, it gets a dwindling portion ofmedicines from its UK laboratories.
That reflects the realities of the modern drugs industry, inwhich companies chase the best science, regardless of geography.
Of the top 10 medicines sold by AstraZeneca, three -all for cancer - were invented in its labs near Manchester, fourcame from Sweden, one from its U.S. research site, one from theU.S. biotech industry and one from Japan.
The Japanese drug, cholesterol fighter Crestor, was acquiredfrom Shionogi and is now the group's biggest seller.
Future drug sales will rely even less on its British labwork. Only one of the 13 experimental medicines in the pipelinethat AstraZeneca management highlighted when it laid out itsdefence was invented in-house.
The rest flow from acquisitions and licensing deals thatAstraZeneca has struck in recent years with U.S. companies suchas Pearl Therapeutics, FibroGen and Amgen, as well assome smaller British biotech firms.
Many of the most promising new drugs come from theMaryland-based biotech business MedImmune, which AstraZenecaacquired for $15.6 billion in 2007 in a deal that was slammed atthe time by investors as a waste of money.
"It is difficult to really pinpoint the nationality of adrug company today," said Patrick Flochel, global pharmaceuticalsector leader at Ernst & Young.
"Is it where it was originally born or the language theyspeak or where it is headquartered or where it pays most of itstaxes or where most of the employees come from? In many ways,pharma companies are more American than anything elsebecause that's the biggest market."
Pfizer's attempt to pull off the largest foreign takeover ofa British company has created a political storm. Many scientistsand some politicians have said its record of slashing jobs afterprevious deals will undermine a vital high-tech sector.
Pharmaceuticals is one area where Britain punches above itsweight. Despite accounting for just over 2 percent of the globaldrugs market, it is responsible for a tenth of research anddevelopment expenditure.
FIVE-YEAR PLEDGE
Pfizer CEO Ian Read has made a five-year promise to completea research centre that AstraZeneca plans to build in Cambridge,retain a big factory in the northwestern English town ofMacclesfield and put a fifth of its research staff in Britain.
But five years is not long in an industry with 10 to 15 yearproduct cycles, and Pfizer has also said it could adjust itspromises if circumstances change "significantly", promptinggovernment demands for more binding commitments.
There are reasons for concern about jobs. The past decadehas seen a wave of cutbacks across the pharmaceuticals industry,with Pfizer responsible for many of the deepest cuts afterswallowing smaller rivals such as Wyeth, Warner-Lambert andPharmacia.
AstraZeneca, too, has wielded the knife regularly. The groupwas formed in 1999 by the merger of Sweden's Astra and Britain'sZeneca, which was itself created in 1993 by the break-up ofImperial Chemical Industries, for many years the bellwether ofthe British economy.
After expanding staff numbers from 2000 to 2007,AstraZeneca's headcount has shrunk every year since 2008,reflecting its difficulties in finding enough new drugs toreplace those going off patent.
It now employs 51,500 people worldwide, 6,700 of them inBritain - a far smaller ratio of local to international staffthan at British bank Barclays, which last weekannounced 19,000 job cuts in a workforce that is roughly halfBritish-based.
AstraZeneca's planned move to its new state-of-the-art sitein Cambridge will also involve further job losses, with thenumber of research and development posts in Britain expected tofall by around 400 to 2,200 by 2016.
"The changes we have made globally and in the UK to theshape and size of our organisation over the recent years arepart of the transformation of AstraZeneca to ensure the businessis fit for future growth and sustainable success," a companyspokeswoman said.
Amidst the growing political controversy on both sides ofthe Atlantic, Pfizer is weighing its next move, which could be asweetened offer for AstraZeneca in the coming week. (Editing by David Stamp)
