ZURICH (Reuters) -Novartis said on Tuesday a previously announced restructuring programme could lead to 8,000 jobs being cut, including up to 1,400 in Switzerland, confirming a report by Swiss newspaper TagesAnzeiger.
The job cuts are part of a restructuring programme the Swiss pharma group announced in April targeting savings of at least $1 billion by 2024.
Novartis said in an emailed statement it had made good progress in implementing its new organisational structure that involved integrating its pharmaceuticals and oncology business units and would lead to eliminating roles across the organisation.
“This restructuring could potentially impact 1,400 positions based in Switzerland, out of around 8,000 positions impacted globally,” the company said, adding it had currently 108,000 employees globally, including 11,600 in Switzerland.
Novartis said the new structure with fewer duplications in its business would be implemented over the next months.
It said it had completed the appointment of most leadership at the global level and would provide further updates in the coming weeks.
(Reporting by Paul Carrel, Silke Koltrowitz and Paul Arnold; Editing by David Gregorio)
