ZURICH—Novartis said on Tuesday a previously announced restructuring program could lead to 8,000 jobs being cut, or about 7.4 percent of its global workforce, including up to 1,400 in Switzerland.
The job cuts, previously projected by Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan to be in the “single digit thousands,” are part of a restructuring program the Swiss pharmaceutical group announced in April, targeting savings of at least $1 billion by 2024.
Novartis said in an emailed statement it had made good progress in implementing its new organizational structure that involved integrating its pharmaceuticals and oncology business units and would lead to eliminating roles across the organization.
The statement confirmed an earlier report by Swiss newspaper TagesAnzeiger on the cutbacks….