Novartis continues its multi-year review with new plans to close its production facility in Wehr, Germany.
Novartis said the measures announced Tuesday will result in the elimination of about 220 jobs. The Swiss drugmaker expects the site to be shut down by the end of 2028.
The Wehr facility primarily focuses on older medicines from Novartis’ portfolio and utilizes traditional solid oral dosage forms such as tablets and capsules. The company said the planned closure of the Wehr plant will not affect Novartis’ drug supply.
Novartis’ latest manufacturing restructuring marks a new shift from older technologies to high-growth modalities.
The Wehr facility, located between the Rhine Valley and the Black Forest, has been in operation since 1943. However, Novartis said in a May 5 German-language press release that “the site is no longer competitive.”
Instead, Novartis is spending 35 million euros to build a new production facility in the eastern German city of Halle that will specialize in radioligand treatments. The new factory is scheduled to begin operations in 2027.
“The company remains firmly committed to Germany as a business location and will continue its involvement in research and development, particularly in the field of clinical trials, and its close cooperation with scientific and medical institutions and patient organizations,” according to a May 5 release translated by Google.
The planned closure of the Wehr plant follows similar measures at Novartis’ Stein facility in Switzerland. In November 2025, Novartis announced that production of oral solid dosage forms and packaging of sterile products at the Stein facility will cease by the end of 2027, resulting in the elimination of approximately 550 positions. The plant will continue commercial production of complex, personalized cell therapies and serve as a center of excellence for sterile pharmaceutical products.
At the same time, the company announced that it plans to invest $80 million in its Schweizerhalle site near Basel to boost production of siRNA therapeutics.
Novartis is adjusting its European manufacturing footprint as it makes major investments to expand its presence in the United States.
Last week, Novartis announced plans for a new drug substance facility in Morrisville, North Carolina. The 56,200 square foot facility will produce raw materials for solid dosage tablets, capsules and RNA therapeutics.
In December, Novartis broke ground on a more than 700,000-square-foot flagship manufacturing site in North Carolina. The project includes construction of the Morrisville facility, a new facility in Durham including two new facilities, and an expansion of the existing Durham facility.
Construction of the Morrisville facility completes Novartis’ $23 billion investment commitment to the U.S. it shared a year ago, the company said.
