I'm not taking it precisely as you are. I believe they're saying that they will no longer have a single group doing work in this area. I doubt they're abandoning everything that's under development, rather that it's being integrated back into other parts of the company.
Some time ago Sanofi did somewhat the same with Oncology, but again products are still being developed, just not in one specific group, and yes at that time they did cut back, so some products were dropped.
I wouldn't be surprised if some Novartis products are dropped, but doubt if they'll be ones that are currently in clinical trials. I actually believe companies may be hard pressed to just stop clinical trials once they've started by the FDA. It's always up to them to determine if later stage trials should be run, or trials may be stopped for safety, futility, etc. but I don't believe that without a reason companies can simply stop a trial.
Gary
