Novartis to cut 2,500 jobs worldwide

Swiss drugmaker Novartis said it plans to cut 2,500 global jobs in a restructuring programme aimed at generating yearly cost savings of $1.6bn (€1.08bn).

Novartis currently employs more than 600 people in its manufacturing facility in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork, and its ethical pharmaceutical division based in Dublin. It also has operations in Waterford.

The company said that many of the cuts, which will take place in 2008 and 2009, will be achieved through normal fluctuation in staffing levels and social programmes.

The Basel-based firm, one of the world's biggest drugmakers in both patent-protected and generic medicines, employs around 10,000 people around the world.