Novartis rejiggers R&D organization

Novartis is cutting jobs and making other changes in its R&D organization as part of a research centralization strategy. The company’s sites in Cambridge, Mass., and Basel will together house a new team called Chemical Biology & Therapeutics as well as biologic therapy research centers. Biologic units in Shanghai and Schlieren, Switzerland, will close. Novartis will relocate the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases from Singapore to Emeryville, Calif., where it will be colocated with an infectious diseases research team. In all, about 185 jobs will be lost, but at least 60 others will be created, the firm says.