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.
VEVEY, SWITZERLAND – Nestlé’s move into nutritional solutions for health problems is being given a boost this week with Nestlé Health Science taking a minority stake in a New Zealand company that specializes in developing kiwi-based products to treat gastrointestinal conditions.
Vital Foods, a 20-year-old firm, has two products for treating constipation that are well established in New Zealand, Phloe and KiwiCrush.
“Both products are based on a natural kiwifruit extract, and have been clinically shown to be effective against constipation,” the Swiss multinational notes in a statement about the deal. “Constipation is a common functional disorder of the gastrointestinal tract, affecting around 1 in 6 people in the general adult population in Oceania, Europe and the US.”
The terms of the agreement are not being disclosed. The Swiss company will have a seat on the board, giving it a voice in the company’s product development and commercialization strategies. Inventages, which manages Nestlé Venture Funds, has been an investor in Vital Foods for several years.
Nestlé Health Science also announced Thursday that it has completed the purchase of Prometheus, a company that specializes in gastroenterology and oncology diagnostics and specialty pharmaceutical products, notably for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
The San Diego, California firm was scheduled for an IPO in the US when it agreed to a buyout by Nestlé in May 2011. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Dow Jones News cited a Vontobel analyst as saying that the Vevey company most likely paid over $1 billion.
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.
Company will cut back 8,400 jobs in two years for $2.4b annual savings
Hundreds laid off - Photo Roche
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Roche has been true to its word earlier this year that it would make “significant” job cuts after setbacks in its drug business: Wednesday morning 17 November the company said that it is cutting back 6 percent of its workforce.
“Operation Excellence”, as the restructuring programme is being called, will cost the company CHF2.7 billion a year for 2010 and 2011, but starting in 2011 it should bring savings of CHF1.8b and, from 2012 on, the company expects to save CHF2.4b a year.
The bulk of the 8,400 jobs to be cut are in the US, 3,500, with 1,300 in Europe and 770 in Switzerland. The rest are spread throughout the world. The most strongly touched area is the pharmaceutical division, in particular production and sales.
The company announced stable sales in October, for the end of its first three quarters.
Links to other sites: Roche press release, Financial Times background story, TSR (Fre)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Jean-Christophe Leroux, an expert in galenic (natural rather than chemical) studies, was given the CHF100,000 Debiopharm Life Sciences Award at EPFL in Lausanne Tuesday 7 September. Leroux and his team at EPH in Zurich, the other Swiss federal polytechnic university EPFL, are noted for their innovative research on polymer chemistry, nanotechnology and pharmaceutical sciences to yield novel drug therapies, according to Debiopharm, a Swiss-based pharmaceutical company. The award was given as part of an EPFL School of Life Sciences Symposium entitled “Engineering Life”.
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.
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.
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.
Update 14:15 Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Three pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer, Eli Lilly & Co. and Bayer AG have been fined CHF5.7 million in total for price fixing, linked to their over-the-counter erectile functioning drugs Viagra, Cialis and Levitra. Bayer Switzerland promptly reacted, saying that it has not participated in price-fixing and has respected Swiss law. According to Dow Jones/CNN Money, the company is considering taking legal action against the decision.
The Swiss competition commissioner levied the fines saying the fixing was done using public price recommendations, which have been illegal in Switzerland since 2000.
Basel, Switzerland (Genevalunch) – Roche Pharmaceuticals sales increased 7 percent (8 in local currencies) to CHF11.6 billion during the first quarter of 2009, indicating a good recovery from 2008 when company shares took their biggest dive in 11 years. The improvement was due mainly to strong sales of cancer treatment products.
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%.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The number of animals used for testing medical products in Switzerland rose 1.5% in 2007, to over 724,000. None were used to test cosmetics.
