BRIEF — Novartis to move UK HQ to London

Novartis will move its UK headquarters to become part of an emerging life sciences cluster in London.

The current UK headquarters of the Swiss pharma giant are around 30 miles outside the capital, but by 2020 the company expects to be at The WestWorks, an innovation hub in the west of the city.

Novartis’ neighbors at the site will include start-ups and fast-growth technology companies, and the research and innovation campus of Imperial College London.

Haseeb Ahmad, Novartis UK country president, said: “The nature of healthcare and medicine is changing and as we pivot towards becoming a focused medicines company, powered by digital and data, we want to be closer to our customers and partners, and become better networked in the healthcare and life science ecosystem.”