Novartis
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.
Novartis manufactures the drugs clozapine, diclofenac, carbamazepine, valsartan, imatinib mesylate, cyclosporine, letrozole, methylphenidate, terbinafine, deferasirox, and others.
Novartis was formed in 1996 by the merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz. It was considered the largest corporate merger in history during that time. 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.
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.
Novartis is a full member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. 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.Ciba-Geigy
Ciba-Geigy was formed in 1970 by the merger of J. R. Geigy Ltd and CIBA.Ciba began in 1859, when Alexander Clavel 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". The acronym, CIBA, was adopted as the company's name in 1945.
The foundation for Geigy was established in 1857, when Johann Rudolf Geigy-Merian and Johann Muller-Pack acquired a site in Basel, where they built a dyewood mill and a dye extraction plant. Two years later, they began the production of synthetic fuchsine. In 1901, they formed the public limited company Geigy, and the name of the company was changed to J. R. Geigy Ltd in 1914.
CIBA and Geigy merged in 1970 to form Ciba‑Geigy Ltd..
Mid-1990s controversy
In the mid-1990s, state and federal health and environmental agencies identified an increased incidence of childhood cancers in Toms River, New Jersey, from the 1970–1995 period. Multiple investigations by state and federal environmental and health agencies indicated that the likely source of the increased cancer risk was contamination from Toms River Chemical Plant, which had been in operation since 1952, and the Reich Farm/Union Carbide.The area was designated a United States Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site in 1983 after an underground plume of toxic chemicals was identified. The following year, a discharge pipe was shut down after a sinkhole at the corner of Bay Avenue and Vaughn Avenue revealed that it had been leaking. The plant ceased operation in 1996. A follow-up study from the 1996–2000 period indicated that while there were more cancer cases than expected, rates had significantly fallen and the difference was statistically insignificant compared to normal statewide cancer rates. Since 1996, the Toms River water system has been subject to the most stringent water testing in New Jersey and is considered safe for consumption. Dan Fagin's Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation, the 2014 Pulitzer Prize winning book, examined the issue of industrial pollution at the site in detail.
Sandoz
Sandoz is the generic drugs division of Novartis. Before the 1996 merger with Ciba-Geigy to form Novartis, Sandoz Pharmaceuticals was a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, and was best known for developing drugs such as Sandimmune for organ transplantation, the antipsychotic Clozaril, Mellaril Tablets and Serentil Tablets for treating psychiatric disorders, and Cafergot Tablets and Torecan Suppositories for treating migraine headaches.The Chemiefirma Kern und Sandoz was founded in 1886 by Alfred Kern and Edouard Sandoz. The first dyes manufactured by them were alizarinblue and auramine. After Kern's death, the partnership became the corporation Chemische Fabrik vormals Sandoz in 1895. The company began producing the fever-reducing drug antipyrin in the same year. In 1899, the company began producing the sugar substitute saccharin. Further pharmaceutical research began in 1917 under Arthur Stoll, who is the founder of Sandoz's pharmaceutical department in 1917. In 1918, Arthur Stoll isolated ergotamine from ergot; the substance was eventually used to treat migraine and headaches and was introduced under the trade name Gynergen in 1921.
Between the World Wars, Gynergen and Calcium-Sandoz were brought to market. Sandoz also produced chemicals for textiles, paper, and leather, beginning in 1929. In 1939, the company began producing agricultural chemicals.
The psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide were discovered at the Sandoz laboratories in 1943 by Arthur Stoll and Albert Hofmann. Sandoz began clinical trials and marketed the substance, from 1947 through the mid-1960s, under the name Delysid as a psychiatric drug, thought useful for treating a wide variety of mental ailments, ranging from alcoholism to sexual deviancy. Sandoz suggested in its marketing literature that psychiatrists take LSD themselves, to gain a better subjective understanding of the schizophrenic experience, and many did exactly that and so did other scientific researchers. The Sandoz product received mass publicity as early as 1954, in a Time magazine feature. Research on LSD peaked in the 1950s and early 1960s. The CIA purchased quantities of LSD from Sandoz for use in its illegal human experimentation program known as MKUltra. Sandoz withdrew the drug from the market in 1965. The drug became a cultural novelty of the 1960s after psychologist Timothy Leary at Harvard University began to promote its use for recreational and spiritual experiences among the general public.
Sandoz opened its first foreign offices in 1964. In 1967, Sandoz merged with Wander AG. Sandoz acquired the companies Delmark, Wasabröd, and Gerber Products Company. On 1 November 1986, a fire broke out in a production plant storage room, which led to the Sandoz chemical spill and a large amount of pesticide being released into the upper Rhine river. This exposure killed many fish and other aquatic life. In 1995, Sandoz spun off its specialty chemicals business to form Clariant. In 1997, Clariant merged with the specialty chemicals business that was spun off from Hoechst AG in Germany.
Merger
In 1996, Ciba-Geigy merged with Sandoz, with the pharmaceutical and agrochemical divisions of both staying together to form Novartis. Other Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz businesses were spun off as independent companies. notably Ciba Specialty Chemicals. Sandoz's Master Builders Technologies, a producer of chemicals for the construction industry, was sold off to SKW Trostberg A.G., a subsidiary of the German energy company VIAG, while its North American corn herbicide business became part of the German chemical maker BASF.Post-merger
In 1998, the company entered into a biotechnology licensing agreement with the University of California at Berkeley Department of Plant and Microbial Biology. Critics of the agreement expressed concern over prospects that the agreement would diminish academic objectivity, or lead to the commercialization of genetically modified plants. The agreement expired in 2003.2000–2010
In 2000, Novartis and AstraZeneca combined their agrobusiness divisions to create a new company, Syngenta.In 2003, Novartis organized all its generics businesses into one division, and merged some of its subsidiaries into one company, reusing the predecessor brand name of Sandoz.
In 2005, Novartis expanded its subsidiary Sandoz significantly through the US$8.29 billion acquisition of Hexal, one of Germany's leading generic drug companies, and Eon Labs, a fast-growing United States generic pharmaceutical company.
In 2006, Novartis acquired the California-based Chiron Corporation. Chiron had been divided into three units: Chiron Vaccines, Chiron Blood Testing, and Chiron BioPharmaceuticals. The biopharmaceutical unit was integrated into Novartis Pharmaceuticals, while the vaccines and blood testing units were made into a new Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics division. Also in 2006, Sandoz became the first company to have a biosimilar drug approved in Europe with its recombinant human growth hormone drug.
In 2007, Novartis sold the Gerber Products Company to Nestlé as part of its continuing effort to shed old Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy businesses and focus on healthcare.
In 2009, Novartis reached an agreement to acquire an 85 percent stake in the Chinese vaccines company Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. as part of a strategic initiative to build a vaccines industry leader in this country and expand the group's limited presence in this fast-growing market segment. This proposed acquisition will require government and regulatory approvals in China.
In 2010, Novartis offered to pay US$39.3 billion to fully acquire Alcon, the world's largest eye-care company, including a majority stake held by Nestlé. Novartis had bought 25 percent of Alcon in 2008. Novartis created a new division and called it Alcon, under which it placed its CIBA VISION subsidiary and Novartis Ophthalmics, which became the second-largest division of Novartis. The total cost for Alcon amounted to $60 billion.