BASEL, SWITZERLAND – Novartis will be cutting close to 2,000 jobs in the US, in New Jersey, as the result of an expected fall in demand for a relatively new medicine and the expiry of the patent for another, the company announced Friday 13 January in Basel. The sales force will lose 1,630 jobs and another 330 will go in related administrative posts. Staff will be informed of the specifics in April and the job cuts will be made in the first half of 2012.
The restructuring that lies behind the job cuts will result in CHF160 million in exceptional charges in the first half of 2012 in addition to an exceptional charge of CHF900m in the second half of 2011 following a “reassessment of the future sales potential of Rasilez/Tekturna in light of the Altitude results”.
Preparations were underway to restructure the company’s general medicines business with the patent expiring for the hypertension market leading medicine Diovan (valsartan) in the US in September 2012. The restructuration is being speeded up, the company says, after Altitude clinical studies were recently called to a halt, ending trials for Rasilez/Tekturna (aliskiren), another hypertension drug.
Novartis notes that the
“study was halted following the recommendation from the Data Monitoring Committee overseeing the trial. The study was investigating Rasilez/Tekturna in a high-risk population of patients with type-2 diabetes and renal impairment. As a precautionary measure Novartis Pharmaceuticals ceased all promotion of Rasilez/Tekturna-based products for use in combination with an angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB). Novartis Pharmaceuticals, in consultation with health authorities, is now recommending that hypertensive patients with diabetes should not be treated with Rasilez/Tekturna in combination with an ACE-inhibitor or ARB. Patient safety is the highest priority for Novartis and we are in continuing dialogue with health authorities worldwide to establish the most appropriate next steps.”
Novartis announced in November that it is cutting 1,000 jobs in Switzerland, some 350 of them in Prangins, near Nyon.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Cisco, which has three Swiss offices, including one in Rolle in canton Vaud, was busy presenting its latest products at Cisco Live in Las Vegas, Nevada Wednesday 13 July while the business rumour mill was grinding out stories about expected layoffs that could be as high as 10,000, according to Bloomberg Monday, or between 5,000 and 7,000 according to the Wall St Journal Wednesday.
The California-based company employs more than 73,000 people worldwide and has annual revenues of $10.9 billion.
Chief executive office John Chambers appeared to give some credence to the rumours with a keynote speech at the Cisco Live event where he talked about a leaner company that will cut costs by about $1 billion during its next fiscal year, saying the company has become too complex. Cisco has been promising a reorganization that will get innovative products to market faster. The company has so far declined to comment on the number of jobs that will go, and Chambers said Wednesday that a final decision has not yet been made.
The job cuts are expected to be announced in August.
The accent on Wednesday was Cisco’s role in providing cloud-related products. The company is best known as a computer network equipment maker. Reuters, in a review of the new products presentation notes that the company is now the second provider of servers in the US, “behind only HP, commanding 19.7 percent of the market. While other business units are struggling to maintain, servers have grown into nearly a billion-dollar business in less than two years.”
The Cuban government will lay off half a million state employees over the next six months, the confederation of trade unions announced 13 September in the official newspaper, Granma. The measure is being taken in order to improve efficiency in the state sector, which employs about 5 million people. The government hopes to find jobs for the laid-off state workers in the private sector, for which relaxed rules will be announced.
The news comes days after former Cuban leader Fidel Castro was quoted as saying that the Cuban system was not working.
Links to other sites: Granma (Spa), Miami Herald, San Francisco Chronicle
Drug company Pfizer, in what it describes as a major restructuring, will lay off some 6,000 workers worldwide. Ireland’s Pfizer operations will cut 785 jobs. The news comes as 1,200 people marched in Dublin to demand a right-to-work programme, just as the European Commission told Ireland it can expect to be asked to make more budget cuts to keep the government debt from spiraling out of control. Ireland’s pharmaceuticals industry blossomed alongside the growth of technology industries in the 1980s and 1990s.
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Metalor, Neuchatel-based international company in precious metals and gold, will be laying off 110 people as it closes its watches and jewelry division. The company says it failed to find a buyer after it was strongly affected by the combination of a weak watch industry in 2009 plus the watch industry moving rapidly to outsource work to other countries. The division is based in Neuchatel.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The cost of subscribing to a Swiss daily newspaper will rise in 2010, between 1 and 11 percent, to keep in step with increased costs and lower advertising revenues. The rise is even greater in reality in some cases such as the NZZ, when a mid-2009 increase is taken into account, notes ats/TSR. The newspaper’s editor, Markus Spillmann, has written to subscribers saying that “High quality information is an expensive product.”
The traditional income balance has been one-third subscriptions and two-thirds advertising, but with the latter falling dramatically for several months, readers are now being asked to foot a larger share of the bill. Newstand prices are also set to rise.
The rising cost of Swiss papers, according to ats/TSR, includes:
- Le Matin and 24 Heures, CHF379 to CHF389
- Le Temps, 11 percent, from current price of CHF432 for 13 months
- NZZ, from CHF488 to CHF512.
Background, GenevaLunch
Job cuts at Swiss rail
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s national railway company CFF plans to cut between 300-350 administrative jobs in the infrastructure division, its spokesperson Reto Kormann said 20 November. It hopes to save CHF60 million a year. The company will not lay off anyone: the jobs will be eliminated by attrition and internal reassignment.
Links to other sites:Le Temps, Romandie News
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Staff at Le Matin protested in front of the Edipresse tower in Lausanne Tuesday in solidarity with photographers at the newspaper, particularly hard hit by the layoffs that the company is planning. Edipresse is the largest private media company in French-speaking Switzerland. It announced 9 October that it would lay off 10 percent of its workforce, 100 people, in the face of a continuing weak advertising market.
More Swiss media cuts on the way
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Edipresse, the largest media company in French-speaking Switzerland, announced Friday 9 October that it will cut nearly 10 percent of its workforce: 100 jobs, with half in its print units, some 30 journalists’ positions and the rest in production. The company has 1,124 full-time equivalent positions in Switzerland. Half of its approximately 3,000 employees work outside the country. Details about which jobs are affected will follow later. The group will begin consultations next week with staff representatives: Edipresse Romande (French-speaking area) has collective agreements with staff, although it has not had such agreements in German-speaking areas in the country.
The latest round of job cuts is due largely to a 25 percent drop in advertising since 2008, with “no improvement in sight”, the company says.
Subway trains in London, England are likely to come to a halt for two days, with drivers on strike from 19:00 Tuesday 9 June until late Thursday. Their union is calling for higher pay. PR-Inside
British Airways last week told staff that it is seeking 2,000 voluntary redundancies among the 14,000 flight crew members, raising fears of a strike by airline staff this summer, according to the Times. The company announced a £401 pre-tax loss 22 May, the worst in the company’s history, due to a mix of falling business travel, a high pound and high fuel costs. Guardian
Elbikon, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – Swiss elevator (lift) company Schindler is laying off 36 people and turning to a common Swiss economic downturn solution, partial employment, the Lucerne-based company announced 28 April, Tuesday.
Russia’s rate of unemployment has hit 10 percent, new figures from Russia’s Economic Development Ministry released 27 April show, and it will continue to rise, but at a slower rate, the government agency says. There are now 7.5 million Russians out of work, with 3.5m of them laid off since August 2008, and the figure is reaching what the Moscow Times calls the government’s “worst case scenario.”
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss Re will lay off 10 percent of its worldwide work force of 11,560 by the end of 2009, the company announced 2 April. The company lost CHF864 million in 2008. It also said it has appointed Agostino Galvagni, 49, as chief operating officer. He replaces Stefan Lippe, who became CEO in February 2009 when Jacques Aigrain was forced out of the post.
Lausanne, Switzerland (romandie/ats and 24 Heures, Fre) – The downturn in the Swiss mass media market continues, with the announcement, 23 February, of January figures for ad sales, on which media depend for the bulk of their revenues: down 8.7% compared to January 2007, to CHF249.5 million. Edipresse, the Lake Geneva region’s largest media publisher, announced it will lay off 25 staff, representing 16.5 fulltime equivalent jobs, at its Bussigny printing operation, at least in part because of fewer advertising inserts.
Updated 16:05 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Capital International, the European arm of Capital Group, announced 3 February that it is laying off 90 of its IT staff and 15 related support staff in Geneva and another 80 in London. The move is part of a restructuring of the company’s worldwide operations, with all IT to be centred in the US.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Cablecom is considering cutting up to one in 10 jobs, but will decide in January after discussions with employees, the company announced Monday.
