In major shake-up, Novartis combines pharma and oncology units, leaving 3 top execs without jobs

Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan is giving the Swiss pharma a huge makeover ahead of a possible spinoff of generics unit Sandoz, pushing out three C-level executives and preparing for layoffs.

Novartis will no longer have oncology and pharmaceuticals as two separate commercial departments. Instead, all Novartis products will merge into one innovative medicines unit to be managed under U.S. and international markets organizations, the company said Monday.