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news.Novartis is set to restructure its operations at Horsham R&D site in southern UK, shared by Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) and Novartis Consumer Health, as part of ongoing review of its global operations.
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With this move, Novartis has joined Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, who have recently closed their R&D units in the UK.
The Horsham site has almost 950 full-time equivalent positions, of which around 330 belong to respiratory research.
The Switzerland-based pharma firm said its respiratory research group will remain in Horsham and the firm will maintain its main manufacturing facilities in Grimsby, Liverpool and Dundee.
To further align with international priorities, the gastrointestinal research teams are planned to be co-located with teams in Basel and Cambridge over the next 1-2 year period.
Finally, to continue strategic alignment of business units in the UK, the over-the-counter operations are recommended to move to (or near to) the Novartis Frimley site, to further leverage integrated back office services.
Novartis UK general manager Sue Webb said with significant changes in healthcare systems aimed to contain or cut cost, this critical assessment and the subsequent potential changes to the Novartis UK organization are key to maintain significant investment in innovative drugs and their research efforts in the UK.
However, the proposals are subject to an employee consultation process and final Novartis UK board approval.