Novartis Announces Closure of Horsham Site
Novartis yesterday confirmed that they will be closing all operations at their Horsham site later this year, putting nearly 400 jobs at risk.
The Swiss pharmaceutical organisation initially announced in November that they were considering the site’s closure as part of their global review of R&D locations. Following from the announcement, Novartis has now confirmed that research operations will cease by the end of June this year.
A spokesperson from Novartis commented that the announcement “is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to align resources to serve patients and customers better in a challenging healthcare marketplace.”
Staff numbers at the Horsham site have been declining for a while, since plans were announced in 2011 to cut around 500 jobs in Horsham over two years.
The future of the Horsham site remains unclear, but Novartis confirmed that they are committed to “exploring a range of options,” which “could include the use of part of the site for a science or business park.”
The company also noted that, with over 2,500 staff employees Novartis continues to be “a major inward investor to the UK,” retaining “an extensive footprint in the UK with manufacturing sites at Grimsby (Chemical Operations), Liverpool (Vaccines) and Dundee (Animal Health), commercial offices in Surrey, and a team at Sittingbourne, Kent, developing near patient diagnostic testing products.”