The pharmaceutical company Novartis, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, says it has begun talks to close its factory in Horsham, U.K. and consolidate its R&D facilities in Europe. According to the Financial Times, Novartis will continue its other U.K. plants in Grimsby, Liverpool, and Dundee.
Closing the Horsham plant will mean the loss of 550 jobs, says the Financial Times. The company will keep its research group in Horsham working on respiratory diseases and other support functions, according to Pharma Times, an industry newsletter. Those functions employ about 400 in Horsham.
Pharma Times also says Novartis plans to move some of its research and manufacturing units to other existing company locations. Over the next two years, its gastrointestinal research teams will co-locate at Novartis’s sites in Cambridge and Basel. The publication says Novartis U.K.’s over-the-counter operations will move in with or near to the Novartis site in Frimley, U.K.
The Novartis plant closing is the second such announcement involving pharmaceutical companies in the U.K. in as many months. In February, the U.S. pharma company Pfizer said it would close its R&D facility in Sandwich, with a loss of 2,400 jobs.
Read more: Pfizer Slashes R&D Funding, Closes U.K. Research Site
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