After submitting plans to cut 114 jobs tied to its U.S. headquarters in New Jersey in March, Novartis late last month added a handful of additional roles from the East Hanover site to its multiyear workforce reduction agenda.
The move is separate from the prior layoff round, a Novartis spokesperson confirmed to Fierce Pharma Monday.
Another 60 employees linked to the East Hanover HQ are set to be laid off later this year, according to an April Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) filing sent to the state of New Jersey.
The latest cuts come as Novartis has “taken steps to evolve our Oncology, Rheumatology, Dermatology and Neuroscience field sales teams in the US,” the company spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Unlike the previous round of cuts, which were tipped to begin in June, the new reduction will begin taking effect in late July, according to the communication with the state. Both layoff rounds are scheduled to wrap up by late November.
“Novartis continually assesses opportunities to adapt in alignment with evolving patient, customer, and business needs,” the spokesperson said. “As such, we direct our efforts to ensure we have the strongest talent in place in areas where we can create the greatest potential impact for patients and customers.”
The prior round of cuts this year marked Novartis’ efforts to rework its sales team for rare disease medicines.
Novartis’ rare disease portfolio consists of meds like the chronic myeloid leukemia therapy Tasigna and Promacta, indicated for treatment of low blood platelet counts in certain patients. The two meds, along with Entresto, make up a formidable patent cliff for Novartis to overcome in 2026.
At the same time, the company is currently shepherding several new rare kidney disease therapies through their launches, including Vanfrafia and Fabhalta.
This isn’t the first time Novartis has made cuts to its East Hanover team. A similar move to recalibrate its cardiovascular commercial structure led to some 427 job cuts last March.
In September, Novartis said it would lay off another 58 employees who report to its New Jersey headquarters, impacting the company’s U.S. medical affairs team, a Novartis spokesperson said at the time.
Novartis is just one of many pharma majors to chart significant staff reductions in recent years, joined by the likes of Pfizer and Merck & Co.—in many cases driven by a massive patent cliff approaching some of the industry’s biggest branded medicines.
For its part, Novartis has been working to right-size its operations since the middle of 2022, dovetailing with plans to merge its oncology and pharmaceuticals units into one innovative medicines business that’s managed by geographic locations.
