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• Novartis is under pressure after failing to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, and some of the drugs have failed in clinical trials and have been delayed
Novartis AG on Tuesday said the Swiss-American drugmaker will cut as many as 8,000 jobs, or about 7.4% of its global workforce, under a plan to save at least $1 billion by 2024 and boost the pharmaceutical giant’s performance.
The company detailed the cuts after outlining a restructuring plan in April and the Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan projected it to be in the “single-digit thousands” as a part of a restructuring program.
The layoffs will fall heavily on Novartis’s Switzerland operation, where almost 1,400 jobs could be affected, the company said in an emailed statement to Reuters and added that it has initiated consultations with employees at the headquarters in Basel.
“The new structure will be both leaner and simpler, and as such, the company intends to eliminate roles across the organization, subject to local information and consultation requirements,” Novartis said.
The pharmaceutical giant mentioned that it has currently 108,000 employees worldwide, including 11,600 in Switzerland.
Narasimhan has been under pressure as the drugmaker failed to develop the COVID-19 vaccine, which generated a massive chunk of profit for other pharma companies.
Moreover, some of the drugs the company was counting on to drive growth have failed in clinical trials, run into safety issues or been delayed.
The Swiss drugmaker said that the restructuring aims to ensure that sales growth will be at least 4% through 2026.
Novartis started a strategic assessment of its Sandoz generic drugs business last year and said it would complete the review by year-end.
Picture Credit: Fortune
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