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The world's biggest drugs company has announced that it will cut 10,000 worldwide, ten per cent of its workforce.

Pfizer will cut 20 per cent of its European workforce in order to "streamline" operations. The large figure includes the loss of 2,200 sales staff in the US, announced last year.

Further attempts to "establish a smaller and more flexible cost base" include the closure of two additional US-based manufacturing sites in Brooklyn, New York and Omaha, Nebraska.

Three research sites in the United States will also close and, subject to consultation with works councils and local labour law, the drugs giants are proposing to close research sites in Japan and France,.

Speaking of the job cuts, Dr John LaMattina, the head of Pfizer global research and development said: "These and other actions will allow us to reduce costs in support services and 'bricks and mortar' and to redeploy hundreds of millions of dollars into the discovery and development work of our scientists."

Pfizer chairman and chief executive officer Jeffrey Kindler stressed that those made redundant would not be poorly treated by the company, saying: "We have thought long and hard about these steps, because we are acutely aware of their impact on colleagues and the communities where we are located."