Novartis AG is a Swiss multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland. Novartis is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and was the eighth largest by revenue in 2024.[4][5]
Novartis manufactures the drugs clozapine (Clozaril), diclofenac (Voltaren; sold to GlaxoSmithKline in 2015 deal), carbamazepine (Tegretol), valsartan (Diovan), imatinib mesylate (Gleevec/Glivec), cyclosporine (Neoral/Sandimmune), letrozole (Femara), methylphenidate (Ritalin; produced by Sandoz since 2023), terbinafine (Lamisil), deferasirox (Exjade), and others.
Novartis was formed in 1996 by the merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz.[6] It was considered the largest corporate merger in history during that time.[6] The pharmaceutical and agrochemical divisions of both companies formed Novartis as an independent entity. The name Novartis was based on the Latin terms, novae artes (new skills).[6]
After the merger, other Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz businesses were sold, or, like Ciba Specialty Chemicals, spun off as independent companies. The Sandoz brand disappeared for three years, but was revived in 2003 when Novartis consolidated its generic drugs businesses into a single subsidiary and named it Sandoz. Novartis divested its agrochemical and genetically modified crops business in 2000 with the spinout of Syngenta in partnership with AstraZeneca, which also divested its agrochemical business. The new company also acquired a series of acquisitions in order to strengthen its core businesses.[6]
Novartis is a full member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA),[7] the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO),[8] the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA),[9] and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).[10] Novartis is the third most valuable pharmaceutical company in Europe, after Novo Nordisk and Roche.
History
Novartis was created in March 1996 and began operations on 20 December from the merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz Laboratories, both Swiss companies.[11]
Ciba-Geigy
Ciba-Geigy was formed in 1970 by the merger of J. R. Geigy Ltd (founded in Basel in 1857) and CIBA (founded in Basel in 1859).[11]
Ciba began in 1859, when Alexander Clavel (1805–1873) took up the production of fuchsine in his factory for silk-dyeing works in Basel. By 1873, he sold his dye factory to the company Bindschedler and Busch. In 1884, Bindschedler and Busch was transformed into a joint-stock company named "Gesellschaft für Chemische Industrie Basel" (Company for Chemical Industry Basel). The acronym, CIBA, was adopted as the company's name in 1945.[12]
The foundation for Geigy was established in 1857, when Johann Rudolf Geigy-Merian
Corporate structure
Novartis AG is a publicly traded Swiss holding company that operates through the Novartis Group and owns, directly or indirectly, all companies worldwide that operate as subsidiaries of the Novartis Group.[113] In the United States, they operate as Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NPC) headquartered in New Jersey.
Novartis's businesses are divided into two operating divisions: Innovative Medicines and Sandoz (generics).[114] The eye-care division Alcon was spun off into an independent company in April 2019.[115][116][117][118]
Place in its market segments
Novartis is the world's largest in life sciences and agribusiness markets.[6] It was also the second-largest pharmaceutical company by market cap in 2019.[133]
In 2018, Novartis ranked second on the Access to Medicine Index,[144] which "ranks companies on how readily they make their products available to the world's poor."[145][146]
- Alcon: At the time Novartis bought Alcon, it had annual sales of $6.5 billion and a net income of $2 billion.[134]
Research
The company's global research operations, called "Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR)" have their global headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.[149][150] Two research institutes reside within NIBR that focus on diseases in the developing world: Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases, which works on tuberculosis, dengue, and malaria, and Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health, which works on salmonella typhi (typhoid fever) and shigella.[151]
Novartis is also involved in publicly funded collaborative research projects, with other industrial and academic partners. One example in the area of non-clinical safety assessment is the InnoMed PredTox project.[152][153] The company is expanding its activities in joint research projects within the framework of the Innovative Medicines Initiative of EFPIA and the
Products
Pharmaceuticals (66 in total as of 28 April 2023)
Consumer health
In January 2009, the United States Department of Health and Human Services awarded Novartis a $486 million contract for construction of the first US plant to produce cell-based influenza vaccine, to be located in Holly Springs, North Carolina. The stated goal of this program is the capability of producing 150,000,000 doses of pandemic vaccine within six months of declaring a flu pandemic.[170]
In April 2014, Novartis divested its consumer health section with $3.5 billion worth of assets into a new joint venture with GlaxoSmithKline, named GSK Consumer Healthcare, of which Novartis will hold a 36.5% stake.[171] In March 2018, GSK announced that it has reached an agreement with Novartis to acquire Novartis' 36.5% stake in their Consumer Healthcare Joint Venture for $13 billion (£9.2 billion).[65]
Controversies and criticism
Pakistan
Novartis is being sued by Coating Engineers Private Limited for non payment of commissions in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. If interest is added the value including 2025 exceeds ten billion dollars.
Challenge to India's patent laws
Novartis fought a seven-year, controversial battle to patent Gleevec in India, and took the case all the way to the Indian Supreme Court, where the patent application was finally rejected. The patent application at the center of the case was filed by Novartis in India in 1998, after India had agreed to enter the World Trade Organization and to abide by worldwide intellectual property standards under the TRIPS agreement. As part of this agreement, India made changes to its patent law; the biggest of which was that prior to these changes, patents on products were not allowed, afterwards they were, albeit with restrictions. These changes came into effect in 2005, so Novartis' patent application waited in a "mailbox" with others until then, under procedures that India instituted to manage the transition. India also passed certain amendments to its patent law in 2005, just before the laws came into effect, which played a key role in the rejection of the patent application.[45]
Philanthropy
Further reading
External links
References
- Research Locations Novartis^
- Novartis 1Q profit jumps 12 percent as heart drug sales soar The Seattle Times, 19 April 2018, retrieved 2018-04-20^
- Novartis Annual Report 2024 Novartis AG, 31 January 2025, retrieved 1 February 2025