Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis AG (NVS) cut 2,500 jobs over the past year, Swiss daily Tages Anzeiger reported Saturday.

Novartis spokesman Eric Althoff confirmed that the company cut jobs over the past year to boost efficiency, but declined to confirm the number reported by the Swiss newspaper. Those cuts included 1,400 sales jobs in the U.S. in November, which were a result of the drug maker's efforts to focus more on drugs for specialists and hospitals than for general practitioners, which require smaller marketing efforts.

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