Novartis plans manufacturing job reductions

Abstract

Novartis says it will cut more than 2,000 jobs to streamline its global manufacturing and service operations and boost its bottom line. The move will hurt Swiss workers the most. Novartis plans to cut about 1,500 manufacturing jobs in Switzerland by 2022. It will also eliminate up to 700 business service positions in the country in favor of cheaper labor in Czech Republic, India, Ireland, Malaysia, and Mexico. Another 400 jobs will be cut when a plant that produces drugs for hypertension, breast cancer, and other conditions closes in Grimsby, England, by the end of 2020. Vas Narasimhan, who became Novartis’s CEO in February, says the cuts help the firm shift focus toward personalized medicines and away from high-volume drugs. As such, Novartis will create 450 new Swiss jobs for cell and gene therapy manufacturing. Kymriah, the company’s new CAR T-cell therapy that is tailored from a cancer patient’s own