Novartis AG – history, company profile (overivew) and corporate video
Novartis AG is a multinational medicines company headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. It focuses on the following core therapeutic areas:
- Cardiovascular, renal and metabolic;
- Immunology;
- Neuroscience;
- Respiratory.
HISTORY
Novartis was formed in 1996 through the merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz. The history of Novartis traces the converging histories of its three predecessor companies:
Geigy
Geigy’s origins date back to 1758 when Johann Rudolf Geigy-Gemuseus founded the chemicals and dyes trading company J.R. Geigy in Basel, Switzerland.
Ciba
Ciba’s origins date back to 1859 when Alexander Clavel began the production of fuchsine, a synthetic dye, in his silk dyeing factory in Basel, Switzerland. In 1970, CIBA merged with J. R. Geigy Ltd. to form Ciba-Geigy.
Sandoz
Sandoz’s origins date back to 1866 when Dr. Alfred Kern and Edouard Sandoz founded the chemical company Kern & Sandoz.
In 2000, Novartis and AstraZeneca combined their agrobusiness divisions to create a new company, Syngenta.
In 2002, Novartis created the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
In 2006, Chiron Corporation was acquired.
In 2007, the Gerber Products Company was sold to Nestlé.
In 2011, Novartis acquired the medical laboratory diagnostics company Genoptix.
In 2014, Novartis announced that it would acquire GlaxoSmithKline‘s cancer drug business as well as sell its vaccines business to GlaxoSmithKline.
In 2019, Novartis announced an artificial intelligence cooperation with Microsoft.
Novartis completed a series of transactions that focus the company on three main divisions: Pharmaceuticals, Alcon (eye care) and Sandoz (generic medicines).
On April 2019, Alcon became a separately traded standalone company.
In 2022, Novartis announced its intention to separate the Sandoz generic drugs business as a standalone company.
In June 2023, the company acquired Chinook Therapeutics and its drug pipeline.
In July 2023, the company acquired DTx Pharma, a developer of technology for delivering RNA-based therapies.
In October 2023, Sandoz was spun off from Novartis and became a standalone company.
With more than 75,000 employees, Novartis AG is considered one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. According to Forbes, it is considered one of the Largest Public Companies in the World.
*Information from Forbes.com, Wikipedia.org, www.novartis.com/us-en and www.novartis.com.
**Video published on YouTube by “Novartis“