Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis said on Thursday that it would cut 1,260 jobs in the United States among a series of setbacks in the U.S. market.
The decision is part of a reorganization of Novartis' pharmacal development system in the United States, which is responsible for getting new drugs through clinical trials.
The job cuts are expected to save the company 230 million U.S. dollars annually, said the Basel-based company in a statement.
The Swiss firm has suffered several setbacks to key drugs this year, impacting its share price which has dropped 11 percent since January, the Swissinfo website reported.
The launch of one key product - Galvus for diabetes - was delayed in the United States because of safety concerns. Galvus has been approved for Europe but will not be resubmitted in the United States before 2009. And last month, U.S. regulators denied approval for the painkiller Prexige.
Novartis also had to forgo sales of its bowel drug Zelnorm, after it was withdrawn from the U.S. market, and sales of three of its medicines - Famvir, Lotrel and Lamisil - were affected by the launch of generic versions.
The company also announced on Thursday that it doubled its profit to 11.1 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months of the year, but the result fell short of forecasts.
Its third-quarter net profit came in at 1.57 billion U.S. dollars, a drop of 12 percent compared with the same period last year.
Source: Xinhua
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