This time, Jim Shannon, the head of global drug development, is going. His last day is April 1 (no jokes, please). And he’ll be succeeded by Trevor Mundel, a Novartis spokeswoman confirms. He follows Alex Gorsky, who last month left his job as the No. 2 exec in the drugmaker’s US business to run Ethicon, the Johnson & Johnson unit. Gorsky had worked at J&J previously.

Shannon’s departure comes amid a reorganization at Novartis, which is cutting thousands of jobs in hopes of saving $1.6 billion. Last October, the drugmaker tapped Joe Jimenez replaced Tom Ebeling as pharma ceo. Ebeling held the spot for six years after arriving from Pepsi, but now runs the consumer health biz. Jimenez joined Novartis in April from Blackstone, the private equity firm, and was previously on the AstraZeneca board and an exec at HJ Heinz.

Like many of its rivals, the drugmaker has suffered a few pipeline and regulatory setbacks over the past year. The Galvus diabetes pill, which was approved in Europe, never made it past the FDA, which a year ago declined to approve the drug and sought more safety data. Last fall, high doses of the pill caused elevated liver enzyme levels. And the Zelnorm drug for irritable bowel syndrome was withdrawn in March due to a high risk of developing heart attacks, strokes and chest pain, although it became available in the US again as part of a restricted access program.