PHARMACEUTICAL giant Glaxo Wellcome is planning to cut around 50 jobs at its Barnard Castle operation.

The staff will be lost through a process of voluntary severance and early retirement.

The job losses have been forced on the company by the tough global markets and pressure on prices.

The Barnard Castle site currently employs around 1,600 staff, manufacturing antibiotics and other prescription drugs, creams, ointments and anti-sickness drugs used to combat the side-effects of chemotherapy.

Glaxo Wellcome is due to merge with fellow global pharmaceutical giant, Smithkline Beecham, but a spokeswoman for the company stressed that the merger was nothing to do with the latest announcement.

She said: "These job losses are the result of global competition and increasing pressure on prices. They are not a result of the forthcoming merger with SmithKline Beecham.

"We anticipate that the jobs will be lost over the next 12-months by a process of voluntary severance and early retirement."

She added: "We have held a series of face-to-face briefings with staff in the last few days to inform them. We are currently waiting for submissions from interested staff."

Barnard Castle is one of 51 Glaxo Wellcome sites that manufactures drugs. Each site is managed as an individual business and the number of jobs lost at other sites will vary according to the needs of the business.

More than 90 per cent of the products manufactured at the Barnard Castle are for export to more than 100 countries.

Earlier this month, Glaxo Wellcome unveiled a 11 per cent rise in sales to £6.86bn for the last nine months, compared to £6.10bn at the same time last year.