LONDON: Pfizer’s plan to snap up its smaller rival AstraZeneca has stoked concerns about Britain’s ability to remain a leader in life sciences, even as the US drugmaker insists that it highly values UK research.

The pharmaceutical industry represents a rare manufacturing success story for Britain and its two flagship drugmakers — AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline — provide thousands of highly skilled, well-paid jobs.

AstraZeneca alone employs some 7,000 staff in Britain, even after recent hefty job cuts, and it exports almost 7 billion pounds ($11.8 billion) of drugs each year, representing around 2.3 percent of all British exports of goods.

“AstraZeneca and GSK are the two pillars of the UK’s thriving and economically important life sciences sector, supporting biotech and academia across the science base,” said Sarah Main, director of the Campaign for Science & Engineering.

“To lose one of them to foreign ownership would be a blow.”

Pfizer Chief Executive Ian Read, who studied science in London in the early 1970s, knows he is stepping into controversial territory with his attempt to acquire AstraZeneca in a deal that would bring new drugs for cancer and achieve major cost and tax savings.

“We reached out to the UK government this morning. We’ve have some initial preliminary discussions,” Read told reporters in a conference call on Monday.