For months, Novartis has hinted at layoffs coming for some of its global staff. Now, the news has come down from HQ.
Novartis is laying off around 8,000 of its 108,000 staff worldwide in a bid to save $1 billion, the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger was the first to report. A spokesperson for the company confirmed the move on Tuesday.
The news comes as Novartis works to merge its oncology and pharmaceuticals departments into a singular innovative medicines unit. The move “will allow us to reduce duplications of business structures in every country,” the company’s spokesperson said.
The changes will make Novartis “leaner and simpler,” so the company “intends to eliminate roles across the organization,” he added.
Further, Novartis is combining its technical operations and customer and technology solutions units into a singular “operations” unit. The drugmaker is making progress on all of these changes and has appointed most of its leadership teams.
In Switzerland, Novartis is cutting up to 1,400 positions, the company’s spokesperson said.
