Basel, Switzerland is home to Novartis International AG, a Swiss pharmaceutical giant. As one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical conglomerates, it is a name to remember.
Since its founding in 1891, Novartis has produced clozapine, diclofenac, valsartan, imatinib mesylate, cyclosporine, letrozole, and more.
Formed as an independent company in March 1996, Novartis was the result of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz merging their pharmaceutical and agrochemical departments. Several other Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz business units were either sold or spun off as separate firms, such as Ciba Specialty Chemicals. It took three years before Novartis resurrected the Sandoz brand by consolidating its generic medication operations and renaming it Sandoz. In 2000, Novartis and AstraZeneca partnered to spin off Syngenta, a company that specialized in agrochemicals and genetically engineered crops.
For example, Novartis is a member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), as well as the International Federation of Pharmaceutic Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) (PhRMA)
CORPORATE STRUCTURE
Shareholders of Novartis by country of origin as of 2019.
- Switzerland (42.38%)
- United Kingdom (26.15%)
- United States (25.41%)
- Others (6.06%)
As a publicly listed Swiss holding company, Novartis AG is involved in the Novartis Group’s operations in the United States. It is Novartis AG that owns, either directly or indirectly, all Novartis Group entities across the globe.
Innovative Medicines, Sandoz (generic) and Alcon are Novartis’ three operational divisions (eyecare). Alcon was split out from Novartis in April 2019. It is Novartis Pharmaceuticals, and Novartis Oncology, that make up the Innovative Medicines business segment.. One or more of the following tasks are performed by Novartis’ subsidiaries, which are grouped into one or more divisions and categorised by Novartis. Sales, Production, and Research all fall under the umbrella of holding/finance.
Roche’s parent company, Novartis AG, owns 33.3% of the company’s stock, although it has no authority over it. Genentech, a Roche company, also has two major licencing agreements with Novartis. Both Lucentis and Xolair are covered under these agreements.
For the purposes of offshoring R&D and clinical research, as well as medical writing and administration, Novartis opened a facility in Hyderabad, India in 2014. The facility provides assistance to the pharmaceutical (Novartis), eye care (Alcon), and generic medicine divisions of the pharmaceutical giant (Sandoz).
For Novartis, Genoptix was a “solid basis for our (Novartis) personalised treatment plans” when it was purchased in 2011.
Diovan, a hypertension medicine, was losing patent protection and the expected successor to Diovan, Rasilez, was failing in clinical studies when the company lost over 2000 jobs in the United States in 2012, mostly in sales.
There have been a number of site closures and thousands of job cuts over the last several years, so this year’s staff cutbacks are no different from those of 2011.
After acquiring Fougera Pharmaceuticals for $1.525 billion in cash in 2012, Novartis became the world’s largest maker of generic skin care drugs.
The final version of Novartis’ cancer medicine Gleevec was rejected by the Indian Supreme Court in 2013; the judgement was very controversial.
As recently as 2013, the US government sued Novartis again, this time on allegations that the firm had bribed physicians for more than a decade to direct their patients toward the company’s medications.
Declining Novartis’s medicines segment, the company revealed intentions to let off 500 employees in January 2014.
CoStim Pharmaceuticals was bought by Novartis in February of this year.
Ophthotech’sFovista (an anti-PDGF aptamer, also being studied for usage in conjunction with anti-VEGF medicines) was bought by Novartis in May 2014 for up to $1 billion in international sales.
While Novartis retains U.S. marketing rights, it has exclusive rights to offer the eye medication outside of the United States. Ophthotech agreed to receive an upfront payment of $200 million, as well as milestone payments of $130 million for Phase III studies. If Ophthotech achieves marketing approval milestones outside of the United States, the company is eligible for up to $300 million in further funding, as well as up to $400 million in additional funding for sales achievements. Novartis paid Ophthotech $50 million for the first phase III study milestone in September 2014. While GlaxoSmithKline sold its vaccines business for $7.1 billion in April 2014, Novartis stated it will purchase its cancer medicine business for $16 billion as well. GEBN announced in August 2014 that Novartis had paid $35 million for a 15% share in Gamida Cell, with the option to buy all of the firm for $165 million. With the consent of regulators, CSL will acquire Novartis’s influenza vaccine business (including the company’s research pipeline) for $275 million in October 2014.
The MEK inhibitor binimetinib (MEK 162) and the BRAF inhibitor encorafenib (LGX818), both of which were acquired by BioPharma for $85 million, were reported in March of that year.
In addition, Arrowhead Research purchased the company’s RNAi portfolio for $10 million in cash and $25 million in shares. The acquisition of Spinifex Pharmaceuticals was announced by the business in June for a total of more than $200 million. The remaining rights to GlaxoSmithKline’s CD20 monoclonal antibody Ofatumumab were purchased by the business in August for up to $1 billion. Adenosine A2A receptor antagonist PBF-509, which is now in Phase I clinical studies for non-small cell lung cancer, was licenced from Palobiofarma in October for an undisclosed fee.
It was reported in November of last year that the business will pay $665 million to purchase Selexys Pharmaceuticals. EV06, Encore Vision’s most important chemical, was purchased by the business in December and is a first-of-its-kind topical medication for presbyopia. By purchasing Ziarco Group Limited in December, Novartis increased its market share in the treatment of eczema symptoms.
According to Reuters, Novartis paid $41 per common share and $82 each American depositary share, or a 47 percent premium, to purchase Advanced Accelerator Applications for $3.9 billion.
An agreement was signed between GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis in March of 2018 to buy Novartis’ 36.5 percent ownership in the joint venture for $13 billion (£9.2 billion).
As previously indicated in relation to GlaxoSmithKline, in April of the same year the company acquired Avexis for $8.7 billion in cash and stock in exchange for the lead chemical AVXS-101, which is used to treat spinal muscular atrophy.
[84] When Novartis and Laekna agreed to collaborate on two cancer treatments in August 2018, it was the first time the Swiss giant had worked with a Chinese startup. Afuresertib (ASB138) and uprosertib (ASB139) are oral pan-Akt kinase inhibitors that Novartis licenced exclusively to Laekna for worldwide marketing (UPB795). Endocyte Inc. was acquired for $2.1 billion ($24 per share) and a newly formed subsidiary was formed as part of the deal, which was disclosed in mid-October by the firm. Endocyte’s first-in-class candidate 177Lu-PSMA-617 is aimed at metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and will strengthen Novartis’ radiopharmaceuticals portfolio. CellforCure, a contract manufacturer located in France, was acquired from LFB in late December, increasing the company’s ability to create cell and gene treatments.
Novartis declared on April 9th, 2019 that Alcon has been successfully spun out as a distinct business organisation. Alcon was listed on the Swiss SIX and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). On late 2019, Novartis and Microsoft established a five-year “partnership” in artificial intelligence. Using “Microsoft’s AI capabilities,” the businesses want to improve one other’s drug development methods. “Test AI products it is already working on in’real-life’ settings,” is what Microsoft is aiming for. Solutions for “organising and exploiting” data produced by Novartis’ laboratory investigations, clinical trials, and manufacturing facilities will be pursued as part of the transaction. Novartis Chimeric antigen receptor T cell production will also be examined in this study (CAR T cells). Adding to that, the transaction “will also use AI to generative chemistry to improve medication design”. By acquiring Aspen Global inc’s Japanese business for €300 million (approximately $330 million) in November 2019, Sandoz has expanded its Asian footprint. An announcement was made in late November 2019 that the company will buy The Medicines Company for US$9.7 billion ($85 per share) in order to obtain the cholesterol lowering medicine; inclisiran; among other assets
The acquisition of Amblyotech was announced in April 2020.
The French competition authorities fined Novartis €385 million in September 2020 for allegedly abusing its position as the market leader in Lucentis sales by engaging in unfair activities.
Earlier this month, BioNTech signed an agreement with Novartis to produce its coronavirus vaccine at a major manufacturing facility in Europe and sell it to China.
Novartis said in October that it will pay $280 million to purchase Vedere Bio, expanding the company’s cell and gene therapy products.
To tackle the COVID-19 virus, Novartis purchased 6 percent of the outstanding shares of Swiss DARPin research business, Molecular Partners AG, for CHF 23 per share in a joint venture in October 2020.
With the acquisition of Cadent Therapeutics in December 2020, Novartis will have complete rights to the CAD-9303, MIJ-821, and CAD-1883 allosteric modulators, as well as the SK channel positive allosteric modulator CAD-1883.
Arctos Medical, a gene-therapy startup, was acquired by the corporation in September 2021, expanding its optogenetics portfolio.
Novartis said in December that it will acquire Gyroscope Therapeutics from Syncona Ltd. for up to $1.5 billion in cash.
