Closure of research units and job losses part of Novartis restructure

Swiss pharma giant Novartis (NOVN: VX) is to close two research units and cut around 175 jobs as part of a new research strategy.

Groups of biologics researchers in China and Switzerland will be hit by the closures while another hub in Singapore will move to the USA in a restructure that comes a month after news that Novartis will shut its Cell and Gene Therapies Unit, affecting 120 positions at the company.

Announcing the latest planned changed, a statement from Novartis reads: “The creation of a unified early discovery research group based in Basel, Switzerland and Cambridge, USA, will be closely integrated with the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) drug discovery teams around the world.