Novartis to cut or transfer up to 4,000 pharma jobs: paper

Swiss drugs group Novartis intends to cut or transfer up to 4,000 jobs, newspaper NZZ am Sonntag reported on Sunday, citing an internal email. The plan affecting up to 6 percent of its pharmaceuticals workforce comes on top of a program to reduce the number of production sites and is part of a larger drive to cut costs, the newspaper said. Company spokesman Eric Althoff did not confirm the job numbers but issued a statement saying that Novartis intends to prioritize and reallocate resources primarily in pharmaceutical operations to focus on planned product launches and other growth areas. The measures "reflect the need to respond to a dynamically changing healthcare environment", it said, adding that Novartis expects group headcount to remain largely flat in 2014.