January 16, 2012, 1:44 AM EST
By Thomas Mulier and Simeon Bennett
(Updates with closing share price in fifth paragraph.)
Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) — Novartis AG will cut 1,960 jobs in the U.S. and take $1.22 billion of charges to prepare for lower sales of two blood-pressure drugs.
Novartis will take a $900 million charge against fourth- quarter results after lowering expectations for revenue from the hypertension pill Tekturna, and an expense of $160 million to end research on two experimental medicines, the Basel, Switzerland-based company said in a statement today. The job cuts, in anticipation of generic competition for the Diovan treatment, will lead to a $160 million first-quarter charge.
Chief Executive Officer Joe Jimenez has been cutting expenses since he took the job in February 2010. He has also been trying to boost sales from specialist-prescribed drugs, such as the multiple sclerosis pill Gilenya and Afinitor for cancer, to replace revenue from Diovan, the top-selling drug that lost patent protection in Europe last year and will do so in the U.S. in September.
The provision for Tekturna “suggests
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