Novartis to Cut/Transfer up to 4000 Jobs in Global Reorg

Feb. 3, 2014

Drugmaker Novartis is planning to cut or transfer up to 4,000 jobs, according to Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag, citing an internal email.

The paper said that a significant portion of the 4,000 pharmaceutical jobs will be transferred to India, where Novartis rented office space in Hyderabad able to house 8,000 employees.

Novartis told NZZ that its OVERALL worldwide workforce will remain "relatively stable" despite cuts and transfers in various geographic locations.

The company is also conducting a review of its over-the-counter, animal health and vaccines businesses, which lack the global scale of its pharmaceuticals operations.

This news comes after Novartis just announced In January that it would shut its factory in Suffern, New York -- the facility that makes heart drug Diovan and malaria treatment Coartem -- as part of a productivity review.

Read the Reuters press release