WEHR, Germany, May 5, 2026, 13:15 (CEST)
- Novartis plans to close its Wehr production site by the end of 2028, affecting about 220 jobs.
- The site makes tablets and capsules for established medicines; the company says it is no longer competitive.
- Novartis is also putting 35 million euros into a new cancer-therapy production site in Halle, due to start operations in 2027.
Novartis said on Tuesday it plans to close its production site in Wehr, southern Baden-Württemberg, by the end of 2028, putting about 220 jobs at risk at one of its German manufacturing locations. The Swiss drugmaker said the plant is no longer competitive.
The move matters because Novartis is cutting older pill-making capacity while still spending in Germany on more specialised cancer-drug production. The company said the Wehr closure would not affect medicine supply and that it remained committed to Germany.
In Wehr, Novartis makes solid oral dosage forms — tablets and capsules swallowed by patients — mainly for established products in its portfolio. The company said the planned changes would now go through legal information and consultation procedures with employee representatives.
“We are aware of the uncertainty” the announcement brings for workers at Wehr, Steffen Lang, president operations at Novartis, said in the company statement. Lang said Novartis would work “closely, transparently and respectfully” with staff and the town. t-online
The cut lands in a small industrial town near the Swiss border. Südkurier reported that the decision would end an 85-year company history in Wehr and said the initial company statement did not refer to relocating staff or parts of production elsewhere.
Novartis’ German footprint remains broader than the Wehr plant. The company says it employs more than 2,600 people at six sites in Germany; before Tuesday’s announcement, its German site page described Wehr as a facility supplying more than 75 countries and producing and shipping 1.23 billion tablets and granules a year.
The investment side of the announcement is in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, where Novartis plans a 35 million euro plant for radioligand therapies. These are targeted cancer treatments that use a molecule aimed at cancer cells together with a radioactive isotope; Novartis says the new Halle site should begin operating in 2027.
The decision fits a wider manufacturing reset at Novartis. Reuters reported in November that the company planned to cut up to 550 full-time jobs at its Stein site in Switzerland by the end of 2027 as it ended tablet and capsule production there, while also noting that Novartis and rival Roche were major Swiss investors in the United States.
But the Wehr plan is not finished. Consultations with worker representatives could shape timing, severance terms and any measures to soften the blow, and Novartis has not detailed transfers or redeployment options in the initial announcement.
