ZURICH: Swiss drugmaker Novartis offered a sweetener to investors on Friday by starting a $5 billion share buyback programme, but shied away from announcing any radical surgery to its structure.

The Basel-based pharmaceutical firm is carrying out a broad review of operations following the departure of veteran chairman and one-time CEO Daniel Vasella, and is considering options for its non-core assets that lack the scale to become world leaders

In a statement on Friday before an investor day in London, Novartis said it would allocate capital to a strong and growing dividend, bolt on buys and a $5 billion share buyback to take place over two years.

Expectations had run high that Novartis might use Friday's event to reveal whether it plans to take the scalpel to further parts of its businesses. But the drugmaker gave no indication of its plans in the statement.

It said it would continue to cut costs to improve productivity by consolidating its research sites worldwide and expects to deliver roughly 3-4 per cent in productivity gains per year through 2015.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com