Roche CEO Rules Out Additional Big Job Cuts, Eyes Smaller Deals

The chief executive of Swiss pharmaceuticals company Roche Holding AG said it has ruled out another major cost-savings program and further talks with U.S. gene testing company Illumina Inc. The Basel company has almost completed a reduction of 4,800 positions globally it announced in 2010 and wasn't planning any more cutbacks of that scale, Severin Schwan tells Swiss newspaper Der Sonntag in an interview published Sunday. "According to my estimates today, I will have a stable workforce in Europe," he said. "This is also true for Switzerland." Jobs would be created above all outside Europe, he added, with the biggest expansion in Asia and Latin America.