While Novartis has largely wrapped up its transformation into a leaner innovative medicines company—which included multiple rounds of staff cuts over the years—employment changes are still afoot at the Swiss pharma giant.
Take, for instance, a fresh round of layoffs in New Jersey, which offers the latest tell that the company is prepping to prioritize a new generation of drugs.
Novartis is laying off a total of 139 staffers in East Hanover, New Jersey, where the company’s U.S. headquarters is located, according to a pair of Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) alerts filed (PDF) in the Garden State this month.
Novartis confirmed the staff reductions via email, with a company spokesperson noting that the moves will primarily affect commercial field sales associates working on the brands Xolair, for asthma and allergies, and the oncology combo made up of kinase inhibitors Tafinlar and Mekinist (Taf+Mek). The cancer combo is approved for certain patients with melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer, thyroid cancer and other malignancies.
The layoffs were filed separately with the state to reflect the fact that the decisions concerning each brand were “separate and distinct,” Novartis’ spokesperson explained.
In a statement on the decision, Novartis' spokesperson acknowledged that Xolair and Taf+Mek are “important, well-established medicines” that will remain available to patients.
Nevertheless, the company has set its sights on launching some 15 new drugs over the next three years. In turn, the planned changes to Xolair and Taf+Mek promotion are expected to “help ensure that we can bring forward this new wave of innovation and offer the appropriate education and support required to realize the full potential of these medicines for the patients they serve,” Novartis' spokesperson said.
Employees affected by the staff cuts are being encouraged to apply for open positions within the company.
The move echoes a similar maneuver Novartis initiated in June 2021 when it revealed plans to slash 186 jobs supporting migraine drug Aimovig, which also affected brand marketing and field sales positions based in East Hanover.
Word of the latest cuts comes shortly after Novartis raised its sales growth expectation through 2029, with CEO Vas Narasimhan telling investors at a London event last week that Novartis as a standalone company is “already larger than where we were when we had four businesses back in 2018.”
The culmination of Novartis’ efforts to slim down came a little over a year ago when the pharma juggernaut spun off its generics and biosimilars unit Sandoz.
Throughout Novartis’ multiyear effort to reduce costs and improve efficiencies, layoffs have often formed part of the equation, with the East Hanover U.S. home base taking hits on multiple occasions.
Aside from the decision tied to Aimovig in 2021, Novartis also laid off a little over 100 and nearly 300 East Hanover staffers in 2023 and 2022, respectively.
Meanwhile, Novartis in April said it was cutting about 440 development positions in Switzerland and up to 240 roles in the U.S. At the time, a company spokesperson said Novartis’ efforts to shake up its global development group required a “parallel build-up and reduction of roles in certain locations.”
Apart from Novartis, Bristol Myers Squibb placed nearly 200 New Jersey jobs on the chopping block earlier this month. The cuts, which will affect 195 employees, are set to occur in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. The company did not confirm with Fierce Pharma whether the layoffs will affect its corporate headquarters on Route 206 or its Princeton Pike location, which houses BMS' commercial and late-stage development teams.
All told, some 1,329 BMS employees in Lawrenceville have received pink slips this year, according to New Jersey’s WARN alert database.