A "global strategy", as the company has defined it" which will cause 175 redundancies. Employees in the Singapore center will be transferred to California to continue their malaria studies.
Of Aboutpharma Online editorial staff – October 6, 2016
Novartis announced yesterday that it will close research centers in Swiss And China. The decision is due to a cost reduction and efficiency plan of the company. Furthermore, continues the pharmaceutical company, theSingapore Institute of Tropical Diseases will be moved to California. “The move is part of a global strategy – said the multinational “because we want to merge the infectious disease research team with that of tropical diseases”.
But Novartis' intentions do not envisage any abandonment of Switzerland, on the contrary. Future business plans predict two centers of excellence for biotherapy, one to Basel and one to Cambridge (Massachusetts), with an operation of approximately one and a half billion. “The creation of a unified research group will be integrated with the research groups of the Institute for Biomedical Research.
Closures and movements will not be painless. Seventy-three employees will be laid off from the Esbatech facility near Zurich, while the eighty-four researchers from Singapore will be relocated to California. In addition there are also the eighteen Shanghai China facility locations. According to the company, however, the creation of the Basel and Cambridge centers will allow for twenty-five new positions.
This announcement follows the one made this summer when Novartis said it was closing its cell therapy unit, eliminating 120 jobs, while beefing up its oncology department.
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