U.K.-based drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) Thursday forecast flat 2009 sales and unveiled plans to cut a further 7,400 jobs worldwide by 2013, while posting a 1.4% decline in fourth-quarter net profit.

Combined with its other cost-cutting moves announced in 2008, the overall efficiency program should deliver savings of $2.5 billion a year at a cost of $2.9 billion, with a total of 15,000 jobs cut over five years, AstraZeneca said.

Staff reductions are expected across AstraZeneca's operations, including research and development.

AstraZeneca, the U.K.'s second largest drugmaker by sales after GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK), currently has more than 67,000 employees and operations in more than 100 countries, according to its website.

"This is all about improving efficiency to enable us to invest and maintain long-term competitiveness," Chief Executive David Brennan told reporters during a conference call, noting that the economic downturn isn't the driver behind the deeper cost cuts.

Brennan also said AstraZeneca doesn't need a merger or large acquisition going forward, but added that he does see opportunities for partnerships and collaborations that would strengthen the company's pipeline.

"We don't have large acquisitions in our strategy," he said.

Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE) takeover of smaller rival Wyeth (WYE) this week has reignited speculation that other major drugmakers may follow its example and consider a large deal to overcome the considerable revenue decline expected to affect most of the big pharmaceutical companies as today's blockbuster drugs go off patent in the next five years.

Turning to 2009, AstraZeneca forecast flat revenues in constant currency terms, but also flagged higher full-year core earnings per share, expected within a $5.15 to $5.45 range. Core earnings exclude restructuring costs and charges related to the 2007 purchase of U.S. biotech company MedImmune.

No share buybacks are planned in 2009 because the drugmaker wants to improve flexibility to reinvest in the business, it added.

AstraZeneca's share price fell heavily after release of the results, reflecting investor disappointment at the company's fourth-quarter performance and outlook for 2009.

At 1344 GMT shares, which have gained around 35% in the last 12 months as investors increasingly sought defensive stocks, were trading 152 pence lower, or down 5.3% at 2,707 pence in a lower London market.

Brokerage Charles Stanley cut its rating on the stock to reduce from hold, saying that the earnings per share guidance for 2009 was disappointing.

Net profit declined 1.4% to $1.25 billion in the three months to Dec. 31, 2008, from $1.27 billion a year earlier, reflecting higher restructuring costs and impairment charges. This net profit results was below the average estimate of $1.49 billion from 12 analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

Fourth-quarter sales rose marginally to $8.19 billion from $8.17 billion, due to the strengthening dollar. In constant exchange rate terms, sales rose 4%.

Sales of cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor, AstraZeneca's third-largest product, rose 23% in the fourth quarter to $987 million, thanks to increased prescriptions as a treatment for clogged arteries. Asthma treatment Symbicort also saw its sales grow strongly, up 18% to $514 million in the quarter.

Turning to its pipeline, AstraZeneca announced plans to apply for regulatory approval of four experimental drugs in 2009. These are: lung cancer drug Zactima; painkiller PN400 which is developed with Pozen Inc. (POZN); blood thinner Brilinta, previously known as AZD6140, and a combination pill containing cholesterol drugs Crestor and Abbott Laboratories' (ABT) TriLipix.

AstraZeneca's key experimental drug, diabetes treatment Onglyza, is under regulatory review in the U.S. and the European Union.

Charles Stanley analyst Jeremy Batstone-Carr said that while AstraZeneca's pipeline is progressing, he sees few key events occuring in 2009.

"We do not see sufficient [catalysts] in the pipeline to make good the around 20% lost revenue, as key products move off-patent over the next five years," he said.

Although AstraZeneca last year managed to protect its two largest drugs from the threat of generic competition, analyst are concerned that its current late-stage pipeline may not be enough to offset the patent expiration of several key products from 2011.

Company Web site: www.astrazeneca.com

-By Elena Berton, Dow Jones Newswires; 44 20 7842 9267; elena.berton@dowjones.com

(Andrea Tryphonides contributed to this report.)

Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.