RSC President Professor David Phillips expressed his sadness at the news AstraZeneca will cut 7,300 jobs worldwide over the next two years.

"We do not yet know exactly where the jobs will be lost but I express my sympathy to those people, wherever they are. Sadly, in the last two years, nothing has been done to keep highly-skilled, high-tech jobs in the UK. The pharmaceutical industry used to be the jewel in the crown of the British economy - not any more.

"Another part of our ability to drag this country and the economy into a better light has been snuffed out. We in the UK are great at filling our high streets with coffee shops, but not so good at keeping world-class science and industry companies on our shores.

"The pharmaceutical industry has almost been eradicated in the last 10 years. After last year's announcement by Pfizer they were closing their site at Sandwich, Kent, this is the last thing the industry needed. We've gone over the cliff-edge with only GSK acting as the last big branch to hang on to."