Novartis Sued for Gender, Age Discrimination by Female Managers

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. was sued Thursday in federal court by four female pharmaceutical sales managers who say the company discriminated against them based on their age and gender when they were terminated in June 2022.

The plaintiffs, who range in age from 51 to 61, claim Novartis used a purported company restructuring as a pretext for removing older female strategic account managers while retaining younger employees and male managers, according to a complaint filed in the US District Court of New Jersey. They allege Novartis evaluated the managers on subjective criteria like “collaboration” and “entrepreneurship” and then quickly moved to ...