Novartis has announced plans to lay off 550 staff at its site in Stein, Switzerland, by the end of 2027.
This follows the company’s call to shift towards “innovative manufacturing technologies”, which Novartis’ operations president Steffen Lang stated will allow the company to “maintain competitive production in Switzerland”.
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In a 25 November statement, he noted that the company will achieve this through a keen focus on automation and innovative manufacturing technology investments.
Alongside the job cuts, Novartis will discontinue both oral solid dose manufacturing and sterile medicines packaging production at the Stein facility. Instead, the site will now pivot towards the manufacturing of sterile dosage forms and the commercial production of personalised cell therapies.
To achieve this, Novartis will invest $26m into the facility, which will go towards building its sterile dosage form manufacturing capacity.
The Swiss-based big pharma will also dedicate $80m to boost the production capacity at its Schweizerhalle site, which will allow Novartis to expand its European silent interfering RNA (siRNA) manufacturing capabilities. Through this initiative, company will create around 80 new, full-time roles at the site by the end of 2028.
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By GlobalDataThrough this innovation push, Lang noted that Novartis’ Stein and Schweizerhalle sites will become “centres of excellence for innovative production”.
Novartis’ choice to cut jobs at the Stein site comes parallel to the company’s wide-scale expansion efforts in the US, which saw the company commit $23bn to enhance its manufacturing footprint within the country.
Through this initiative, the company is developing a flagship manufacturing hub in North Carolina, which fits into the company’s plans of producing all of its advanced technologies on US ground. This includes cell and gene therapies (CGT), xRNAs and radioligand therapies.
Job cuts across pharma continue
While Novartis is the latest big pharma to cut down its workforce this year, other companies are making similar moves. Novo Nordisk recently axed 11% of its workforce – equivalent to 9,000 jobs – amid mounting competition from Eli Lilly in the obesity and diabetes segment.
MSD made a similar move in August 2025, laying off 6,000 employees to deliver on its $3bn cost-cutting plan, which comes in preparation for the global patent expiry of its best-selling oncology drug, Keytruda (pembrolizumab).
Around the same time, Moderna followed a similar path, with the company’s CEO Stéphane Bancel announcing a 10% workforce reduction in July 2025. This came amid the company’s efforts to reduce costs by $1.5bn as Covid vaccine revenue continues to dip.
