(DURHAM) -- GlaxoSmithKline confirmed Thursday that it plans to expand previous cost-cutting efforts to save nearly $800 million more a year by 2012.  The latest cuts will impact some areas of research and development.

GSK CEO Andrew Witty would not confirm specific job cuts but any cuts are likely to have an impact at the pharmaceutical giant's U.S. headquarters in Research Triangle Park where more than 4,000 people work.

Witty said part of GSK's restructuring plan involves rethinking a dated research and development model. "Really, if you will, the hangover of the creation of the modern R&D industry in the 1980's, lots of fixed buildings," said Witty. "Today everything is much more virtual, much more partnership oriented. We're still carrying a lot of that cost."

Witty said the company will slash research and development in several disease areas associated with the neurosciences, such as pain and depression. He said it is a matter of looking at the cost of achieving success in certain areas compared to other areas.

"I don't like to see anybody leave the organization or for there to be any job losses, but the reality is that we do, from time to time, need to look at way in which we can improve our probabilities of success."