Five months ago the company was cutting jobs; today it is expanding its Swiss base
BASEL / GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Novartis is pumping CHF500 million into a new plant in Stein, canton Aargau, near Zurich, to replace an older one with a state of the art production facility. Stein will become a platform for launching new pharmaceutical products, the company said Monday 23 April.
The news was presented in the context of Novartis’s commitment to Switzerland, with the company underscoring other projects, such as one in Basel, to expand the size of its workforce in the country. The pharma company has been under heavy pressure since it announced in January that it would cut jobs in Basel and closing its over-the-counter unit in Prangins, next to Nyon. Intensive talks led to a turn-around, with the company announcing 17 January a long-term solution appeared possible that would allow the centre to remain open.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The official inauguration of Switzerland’s first university research centre in Asia takes place Friday 16 March in Singapore. The Singapore-ETH Centre for Global Environmental Sustainability (SEC) was created by Zurich’s federal polytechnic institute ETH in September 2010 with financial support from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Singapore.
The first research programme undertaken by the ETH Zurich, with various academic partners, as part of the SEC was the Future Cities Laboratory, which will be visited by Swiss Federal Councillor Alain Berset with Singapore’s Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Vivian Balakrishnan. The project aims is “to plan more sustainable and resource-efficient cities for the future because today over half the world’s population already lives in cities, and megacities in Asia, Africa and other world regions are expected to continue to grow in the coming years and decades”, the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs says in a statement.
Singapore is home to a number of Swiss research centres, particularly in the pharmaceutical field. Berset will also be visiting the Novartis‘ Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD), which has a research programme on tropical diseases that particularly affect populations in the poorest developing countries.
NYON, SWITZERLAND – Novartis will not close its Prangin site and all jobs there will be saved, the company will be investing more money in the plant, canton Vaud will give the company a tax break and some of the unused space will be developed into housing. Tough talks between Novartis workers and managers, the town of Nyon and canton Vaud resulted in a series of agreements unveiled Tuesday afternoon 17 January in Nyon.
The company’s announcement 25 October that it would be cutting 1,100 jobs in Switzerland, some 300 of them in Nyon, was met with anger at the time, but the company agreed to talks, with local and regional authorities intervening.
Some of the Basel jobs will also be saved as part of the agreements.
Novartis announced 13 January that it is cutting 2,000 jobs in the US.
Ed. note: La Cote provides details online; the local newspaper usually protects most of its news behind a paywall, but this is free of charge.
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 – The Hug university hospitals in Geneva late Friday pleaded for everyone involved in its lab workers strike to get the situation back to normal, in the wake of the cantonal council’s announcement Thursday that it will not intervene. At issue: work conditions but also a review of the division of labour. The Conseil d’Etat said Thursday it will not review the issues outside the framework of its Scope project, at the end of 2012. The hospital argue that it does not have the authority to review demarcation disputes over who carries out what tasks. It is taking a number of steps, however, to improve work conditions, it said in a statement released late Friday.
Novartis, near Nyon, had a surprise visit Friday from American boss Joe Jimenez, who talked to employees about efforts to keep the site open. The company announced in October that it is cutting 1,100 staff in Switzerland, including 350 at the Prangins site near Nyon, which would be closed as part of the restructuring measures.
Workers held a one-day strike Wednesday 16 November.
Jimenez Friday told the staff that his wish is to keep the site open, and he is personally involved in efforts to do so. ” He told employees that he intended to visit Prangins and would have done so earlier but for an ultimatic from the Unia union demanding that he come: “I don’t reply to ultimatums,” Jimenez is reported to have said.
“A constructive dialogue with Vaud authorities and the federal government is underway,” Jimenez said in Prangins. “Nevertheless, I would like to point out that Novartis is facing a tough future and that new cost cutting measures are needed if the company is going to maintain its strong investment in R&D.”
The first in a series of scheduled meetings takes place 21 November to seek a solution. It involves a high-level task force involving the company, its employees, the union and government authorities.
LAUSANNE / NYON, SWITZERLAND – Novartis plans to close its centre in Prangins, next to Nyon, have sparked protests by employees since the news was announced 27 October, and a new protest is planned in Nyon Friday afternoon. The company now says it sending in an expert from the US next week to explain an audit that figured in its decision. Some 350 people are employed in the company’s Prangins operations.
The Vaud cantonal council voted Thursday 3 November to back the workers and two top officials met with Novartis and union officials to explore options.
NYON, SWITZERLAND – Pharmaceutical company Novartis is closing its site in Nyon as part of a restructuration that will involve eliminating 1,100 jobs in Switzerland.
The company is cutting a total of 2,000 jobs, with most of the rest in the US. The Nyon site employs 320 persons and 770 jobs will also go in Basel, the company’s head office. The company included general information about the restructuring in its third quarter results, published Tuesday 25 October:
“Novartis is announcing today additional cost reduction activity, which will be executed over
three to five years. Elements of the activity to include: reallocation of production within the
Novartis network resulting in closure of two sites in Switzerland and one in Italy; restructuring
the development organization largely in Switzerland and the US and relocating some research
activities from Switzerland to the US.”
Novartis results show sales up 12 percent in constant currencies, from $12.6 to $14.8 million and operating income up 15 percent, from $2.6m to $3m. Net sales grew by 20 percent with the weakness of the US dollar “with a 5 percent benefit arising from the weak US dollar against most currencies,” the company noted, while “The weakness of the US dollar, combined with the strong Swiss franc, resulted in a negative currency impact of 8 percentage points” on operating income.
Chappatte cartoon from 2009: 2010 didn't see an improvement in revenues (©2011 Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – GenevaLunch is on a slow-news holiday schedule for the next two weeks, but to make sure you don’t miss key reports we’re bringing you highlights from some of the news beats, with links to original sources:
EPFL plays key role in understanding Deepwater Horizon oil spill
EPFL is playing a key role in understanding how the properties of hydrocarbons are important in understanding the wellhead structure and pollution diffusion—how pollution spreads out—in the depths.
EPFL notes in a press release: “The main problem was the depth of the well, nearly 1,500 meters below the sea surface. It was a configuration that had never been tried before, and the pollution it unleashed after methane gas shot to the surface and ignited in a fiery explosion is also unequalled. Much research has been done since the spill on the effects on marine life at the ocean’s surface and in coastal regions. Now, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) professor Samuel Arey and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute reveal in the advance online edition of Proceedings of the national Academy of Sciences how escaped crude oil and gas behave in the deep water environment.”
Swiss pharma industry has good second quarter 2011
Novartis‘s second quarter results, announced 19 July, were strong: Net sales grew 27 percent (up 19 percent in constant currencies) to $14.9 billion. The Basel pharmaceutical company says four drugs received approvals: the US FDA approved Afinitor for advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors and Arcapta Neohaler for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the European Union granted approval for Lucentis in retinal vein occlusion and for hypertension medicine Rasilamlo. The company’s shares rose 3.15 percent Tuesday as a result, reports Le Temps (registration).
Roche is buying mtm laboratories AG (mtm), a privately-held company based in Heidelberg, Germany, the Basel pharma company announced 19 July, for CHF160 million up front and another CHF90m when agreed milestones are met: “mtm is a global leader in developing in vitro diagnostics with a focus on early detection and diagnosis of cervical cancer, the largest early detection market in oncology.”
Swiss media ads down sharply in June
Advertising revenue for Swiss media continues to fall, with June income down 6.5 percent overall from a year earlier to CHF132.3 million, show figures published 19 July by Remp, the industry research arm, reported in Le Temps. Worst hit was the economic and financial press, down nearly 23 percent, with revenues of CHF3.7m. Revenues for daily papers, which account for about half of all media advertising income, was down 8.9 percent. Sunday papers were a rare exception, with revenues inching up by 2.8 percent over a year earlier, to CHF11.8m.
Internet use continues to grow, with a report in mid-July showing that 80 percent of the population surveyed using the Internet several times a week and 67 percent daily, reports Cominmag.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss residents could be forgiven for wondering if Novartis is in relatively good or bad shape Thursday morning, depending on which news sources they follow. The company’s annual report, published Thursday 27 January, shows net sales of $50.6 billion, up from $44.3b a year earlier. Net income was close to $10b, up from $8.5b.
But international business media focus on the gloomier side.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) - Pharmaceutical company Novartis and a group of former and current employees who charged the company with sex discrimination have settled the case amicably, the company announced 14 July. It will pay up to $152.5 million in back-pay and compensatory damages to eligible individuals and it has agreed to spend $52.5m over three years to “improve policies and programmes” within the company.
Joe Jimenez, CEO of Novartis, said in a statement released by the company that “while we believe that there was not systemic discrimination at NPC, the trial revealed that some of our associates had experiences influenced by managerial behavior inconsistent with our values.
Punitive damages may be highest ever employment discrimination verdict cost for a company in the US
New York, NY, USA (GenevaLunch) – Novartis, Basel-based pharmaceuticals company, has been ordered by a judge in Manhattan to pay $250 million in punitive damages to 5,600 women in an American division of the company. Earlier this week Novartis was told to pay $2.5 million in compensation to a much smaller group. The two payments follow a guilty verdict for the multinational on charges of gender discrimination,failling to promote women and paying them less. The award represents 2.6 percent of 2009 revenues for the division.
Links to other sites: Business Week/Bloomberg, Le Temps (Fre), Los Angeles Times
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Novartis has been told to pay $3.3 million to 12 women in compensatory damages in the US, for gender discrimination at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp, a US division of the Basel-based company. Punitive damages are to be announced later and will cover a larger group. The women, employees at the company, started a class-action lawsuit in 2004, saying they were victims of discrimination at work, paid less and promoted less often.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Profits at multinational Novartis rose 25 percent to $12.1 billion in the first quarter of 2010, well ahead of forecasts. Net income was up 49 percent to $2.1 billion. Government contracts to buy swine flu drugs played a significant role, the company noted 20 April in releasing Q1 results, although it emphasized that growth throughout the company was strong.
Daniel Vasella, Novartis
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Daniel Vasella will remain as chairman of the board of Novartis, Basel-based pharmaceutical multinational, but he is stepping down as the multinational’s CEO. The news was announced as Novartis reported an 8 percent increase in profits, $10.3 billion, and turnover of $46 billion for 2009.
Vasella has led the company since the group was created by the merger in 1996 of Ciba and Sandoz.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Basel-based healthcare products Novartis has agreed to buy out the majority shareholding in Alcon, eyecare specialists, from Vevey-based Nestlé, for CHF28.1 billion. Novartis paid $10.4 in 2008 for a 25 percent share and it has offered to buy the remaining 23 percent share for an additional $11.2b, bringing the total price for the company to CHF49.7b. The news was greeted with enthusiasm by markets, reports the Financial Times, with a 0.4 percent jump in the FTSE at opening Monday, normally a dismal post-holiday trading session.
Business Week reports that the sale leaves Nestlé in good shape for a major acquisition.
Novartis on the Rhine, at Basel © Novartis AG
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss drugs maker, Novartis, has acquired 85 percent of Chinese vaccine maker Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical Co. for $125 million, subject to government approval, the company announced 4 November. Tianyuan is a privately held company with sales of $25 million in the $1 billion Chinese market for vaccines, the world’s third-largest.
Novartis says it wants to use its purchase to build a market-leader: it will concentrate on expanding Tianyuan’s portfolio and R&D pipeline, improving its manufacturing technologies and its commercial outlets. Novartis also hopes to be able to introduce its products into the Chinese market where it has a limited presence, with some flu and rabies vaccines.
Flu virus © 2009 Novartis AG
Update 19.09 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland joins other major industrialized nations in reserving 10 percent of the vaccines for donation to poorer countries, under the auspices of the World Health Organization, an initiative proposed by US President Barack Obama, the Swiss government announced.
The Swiss government has bought 13 million doses of swine flu vaccine from Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to cover the 7.7 million population in the country. Deliveries will start at the end of September. The cantons will organize vaccinations, while the costs will be shared among the central government, the cantons and the health insurance industry, the government announced 18 September.
Health workers and those who work with infants under six months of age, as well as people at risk will be vaccinated before the general population, the government says. The cost to individuals will be slightly less than CHF20 per vaccine. The charge covers materials and the actual vaccination, but not the vaccine dose.
Latest tests by GSK in Canada indicate that a single dose of the vaccine provides immunity against the flu. Most countries have budgeted a double-dose vaccination campaign against swine flu.
Related: Swiss government site on prevention, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Viral Flu, © 2009 Novartis AG
Basel and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss drugs maker Novartis said 5 August it had begun trials of a swine flu vaccine on humans in Germany, the US and the UK. If the trials are successful, the vaccine could be approved by regulators using a fast-track approvals process in Europe and the US. Large-scale production would then be ramped up in time for the northern hemisphere’s flu season in autumn.
All major drugs manufacturers are racing to finish human trials in order to begin production of a vaccine. Australian drugs manufacturers announced last month that they had begun human trials.
Fast track procedures take into account strain changes
The WHO (World Health Organization) says that fast-track procedures worked out by regulators in many countries are based on existing procedures for approving seasonal flu vaccines, which take into account small changes in the flu virus, so-called “strain changes.”
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Austrian police are investigating a case of possible arson at a hunting lodge in Bach, Austria, near Innsbruck, that belongs to Daniel Vasella, CEO of phamaceutical giant Novartis. More than 100 firemen put out the blaze, which witnesses say broke out early 3 August out after a dull explosion was heard at the property. According to a Novartis spokesperson, a “professional fire accelerator” was used.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Pharmaceutical giant Novartis saw net sales grow 8 percent in local currencies, but slip 2 percent in US dollars in the first six months of 2009. Exchange rates had significant impact on profits, which fell by 12 percent to CHF4.32 billion, compared to the same period in 2008. Company CEO Daniel Vasella notes in the company’s press release on results that the company expects to “continue record underlying results in constant currencies.”
Versoix, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Six cases of swine flu have been confirmed among children attending the College du Léman summer school at Versoix, near Geneva, reports Romandie news. They will spend the next seven days in isolation in a nearby villa. Four other cases are under investigation.
Scissors award 2008 for biggest salary spread: ABB
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The salary spread between the lowest-paid worker and a member of the board in Swiss companies has increased 72 percent since 2002. While ordinary workers’ salaries have increased 8.4 percent during this seven-year period, the average board member’s pay has gone up 83 percent.
The figures were relased by Travail.Suisse Monday 15 July. They are the result of the fifth survey it has carried out of 27 Swiss corporate groups’ pay packages.
Travail.Suisse is an independent association that represents the interests of workers. It gave its annual award for the greatest spread in salaries to ABB at a press conference in Bern 15 June and called on the government to heed public cries to stop what it calls “indecent” salaries for top managers and board members.
Drug maker Novartis said it had no plans to donate the A/H1N1 vaccine the company is developing to poorer nations, chief executive Daniel Vasella told the Financial Times. WHO (World Health Organization) director general Margaret Chan has urged drugs makers to show solidarity with poorer nations that may not be able to afford to purchase the vaccine. Other pharmaceutical companies, such as GlaxoSmith Kline have announced their willingness to donate a portion of their production, the FT reports.
The United Kingdom announced over the weekend its first death to swine flu, making this the first fatality outside of the Americas since the virus was first detected in late March.
Used with permission of Novartis Vaccines, June 2007. © Novartis Vaccines, click to enlarge
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss drugs manufacturer Novartis announced 12 June that it had successfully produced an antivirus effective against the wild type of A/H1N1 swine flu virus that is at pandemic levels using new cell-based technology.
The news comes hot on the heels of the widely expected World Health Organization’s (WHO) announcement 11 June of a phase six pandemic, the highest level. The drugs maker says that its cell-based production technology will allow it to produce vaccines much more quickly than by using the traditional method of adapting the virus strain to grow in eggs. It has a production facility in Marburg, Germany that can produce millions of doses a week.
Following further testing and clinical trials on the “wild strain” antivirus, Novartis hopes to be able to produce, test and deploy an antivirus for the reassortant A/H1N1 strain provided by the US Centers for Disease Control by this autumn.
Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – TSR, Swiss public television, will run a documentary 5 February following its own investigation into charges by Colombian authorities that Jean-Pierre Gontard paid CHF500,000 in ransom money to Farc rebels in order to gain the release of Novartis employees taken hostage.
Novartis, Basel
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Novartis brought cheering news to an otherwise gloomy set of international corporate figures this week, but the company’s shares nevertheless slipped in Wednesday morning trading. Net profits were up 25% in 2008, to CHF9.2 billion and the company proposed a dividend increase of 25%.
Washington, DC, USA (CS Monitor and TSR/ats, Fre) – The US Supreme Court has accepted a lower federal court decision that allows a large group of plaintiffs to seek $400 billion in damages from 50 multinationals who are accused of breaking an international embargo on South Africa during its period of apartheid. The group includes several Swiss companies: UBS, Credit Suisse, Holcim, Ems Chemie, Novartis, Nestlé, Unaxis and Sulzer.
Vevey and Basel, Switzerland (Le Temps) – Nestlé and Novartis Monday released information about their first quarter 2007 performances, with both continuing to show strong sales and turnover. Nestlé’s turnover was up 6.4% over a year earlier, at SFr 24.3 billion and Novartis reported turnover up 18% to $9.82 billion.
