Basel-based pharmaceutical company Novartis will cut 1,960 jobs in the U.S.

The layoffs are in a bid to save $450 million by 2013 after the patent for a drug called Diovan treating high blood pressure ran out.

That drug is now being sold under the name Tekturna in the U.S. and Rasilez in the rest of the world.

The company expects that the restructuring measures will cost them $160 million in the first quarter of this year.