Novartis

Novartis Corporation was formed in 1996 as a result of the merger of Sandoz and Ciba ‑ Geigy . The merger was approved by the European Union on April 23, on June 17 by Ciba-Geigy shareholders, on June 24 by the US Federal Trade Commission; On December 17, Novartis appeared in the Swiss Commercial Register. Sandoz was founded in 1886 and initially produced dyes, but since 1895 has also taken up pharmaceuticals. Ciba ‑ Geigy Ltd was founded in 1971 with the merger of Ciba, founded in 1859, and Geigy ("Gaigi"), founded in 1759. All three companies were located in Basel. Only the pharmaceutical and agrochemical fields were combined, other units were sold or spun off into independent companies, in particular Ciba Specialty Chemicals .

On May 13, 1997, the was established. In 2000, the agricultural chemistry division was merged with a similar division of AstraZeneca into Syngenta . In 2004, the opened in Singapore , which is engaged in biomedical research on tropical fever and finding a cure for tuberculosis.

In 2005, Hexal AG, a leading German manufacturer of generics , and the American company Eon Labs were purchased, which allowed Sandoz to become a leader in this field of pharmaceuticals. Another American company, , was purchased in 2006.

In 2007, non-core assets were sold - Gerber (baby food production) and Medical Nutrition (artificial feeding products), their buyer was another Swiss corporation, Nestlé . Thus, Novartis concentrated on pharmaceuticals ^[9] . In 2010, Alcon, the world's largest manufacturer of ophthalmic products, was purchased for $ 39.3 billion. The total cost of Alcon was $ 60 billion. ^[ten]

In 2014-2015, the corporation was restructured. The veterinary line was sold to the American company Eli Lilly and Company , the vaccine department (except for influenza) was sold to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). In exchange, oncological assets were acquired from GSK, and OTC Novartis and GSK were merged into GSK Consumer Healthcare under the majority management of GSK (63.5%), 36.5% from Novartis and 4 out of 11 seats on the board of directors. The transaction entered into force in 2015. The flu vaccine department was sold to the Australian company CSL in July 2015 for $ 275 million ^[3] .

In July 2018, the company decided to close the research center for the development of antiviral and antibacterial drugs in San Francisco in order to optimize research activities and the desire to concentrate on creating drugs for the treatment of cancer (gene therapy), as well as new research in the field of neurology and ophthalmology ^[11] .

• Jörg Reinhardt ( German: Joerg Reinhardt ) - Independent non-executive chairman of the board of directors of Novartis since August 2013, with the company since 1982 (until 1996 at Sandoz). Member of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) ^[2] .
• Joseph S. Jimenez - Chief Executive Officer ( CEO ) since February 2010, in the company since 2007. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Colgate-Palmolive . Prior to Novartis, he worked at Heinz , AstraZeneca, and Blackstone Group . Education: Stanford University (Bachelor, 1982) and University of California, Berkeley (Master, 1984) ^[2] .

Novartis has about 171 thousand shareholders. 4.5% of the shares belong to the company itself, other significant shareholders:

• Capital Group Companies, Inc.
• BlackRock, Inc.
• Emasan AG - 3.4%;
• Novartis Foundation for Employee Participation - 2.6%;
• UBS Fund Management (Switzerland) AG - 2.1%;
• Norges Bank - 2.02% ^[3] .

• Innovative Medicines - is engaged in the creation, development and study of new patented drugs, as well as the production and sale of prescription drugs used in oncology, immunology, transplantology, cardiology, dermatology, neurology, psychiatry, endocrinology and many other areas of medicine; in 2016, this division accounted for 67% of turnover and 85% of operating profit; main drugs:
  • Gleevec (Gleevec / Glivec) - Oncology ( chronic myeloid leukemia ), $ 3.323 billion,
  • Gilenia (fingolimod, Gilenya) - neuropathology ( multiple sclerosis ), $ 3.109 billion,
  • Lucentis ( ranibizumab , Lucentis) - ophthalmology , $ 1.835 billion,
  • Tasigna (nilotinib, Tasigna) - oncology (chronic myeloid leukemia), $ 1.739 billion,
  • Sandostatin (osteotide, Sandostatin) - oncology, $ 1.646 billion,
  • Afinitor (everolimus, Afinitor / Votubia) - oncology ( breast cancer ), $ 1.516 billion,
  • Galvus (vildagliptin, Galvus) - an antidiabetic drug, $ 1.193 billion,
  • Cosentix (secukinumab, Cosentyx) - dermatology ( psoriasis ), $ 1.128 billion,
  • Diovan (valsartan, Diovan / Co-Diovan) - ( hypertension ), $ 1.073 billion,
  • Exidgeage ( Deferasirox , Exjade / Jadenu) - Oncology, $ 956 million,
  • Exforge (valsartan and amlodipine, Exforge) - (hypertension), $ 926 million,
  • Xolair (omalizumab) - ( asthma ), $ 835 million,
  • Votrient (Pazopanib, Votrient) - Oncology (kidney cancer), $ 729 million,
  • Tafinlar (dabrafenib, Tafinlar / Mekinist) - oncology ( melanoma ), $ 672 million,
  • Promakta (eltrombopag, Promacta / Revolade) - oncology, $ 635 billion,
  • Travoprost (Travoprost) - ophthalmology (lowering eye pressure), $ 619 million,
  • Jakavi (ruksolitinib, Jakavi) - oncology ( myelofibrosis ), $ 581 million,
  • Voltaren (Voltaren / Cataflam) - (anti-inflammatory and analgesic), $ 525 million,
  • Sandimmun Neoral ( cyclosporine , Neoral / Sandimmun) - immunology and dermatology (transplantation), $ 515 million,
  • Exelon (rivastigmine, Exelon) - neuropathology ( Alzheimer's disease ), $ 444 million,
• Sandoz - production of generics (medicines for which patents have expired); 21% of turnover and 17% of operating profit; consists of three departments:
  • retail generics - the production of active components both in finished forms and for packaging by third-party manufacturers; the main compounds are amoxicillin + clavulanic acid (Amoxicillin / clavulanic acid), zoledronic acid (Zoledronic acid), potassium (Potassium), fentanyl (Fentanyl), cyclophosphamide (Cyclophosmamide), sodium levothyroxine (Levothyroxine sodium);
  • anti-infectious agents - production of antibiotics for both the retail generic department and third-party manufacturers;
  • biopharmaceuticals - development and production of proteins and other biotechnological products;

The research organization of the company is called Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research and unites institutes in the USA, Switzerland, Singapore and China , with 6,000 employees. Expenditures for research in 2016 amounted to $ 9 billion ^[3] .

Production facilities include 67 plants in Austria , Germany (5 plants), Switzerland (3 plants), USA (9 plants, New Jersey , Texas , Massachusetts , Georgia , California , West Virginia , Pennsylvania ), China, Ireland , Slovenia , India , Great Britain , Belgium , France , Poland , Malaysia , Singapore, Spain , Japan and Indonesia .

Three quarters of sales are in established markets (USA, Canada, Western Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand), all in all, products are sold in 155 countries. The share of Europe in the company's revenue is 34%, the share of the USA - 33%, Asia, Africa and Australia - 24%, Canada and Latin America - 9% ^[3] .

In Russia, the first representative office of the companies that later formed Novartis opened in 1876, and in 1915 the first factory in Moscow appeared.

In 1969, after a long break, a representative office was opened in Moscow, which is still operating. In the Russian market Novartis operates as a Russian company, that is, it is not a representative office, but a closed joint-stock company.

The main partner of Novartis global corporate research unit in Russia is the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry named after Academicians M. M. Shemyakin and Yu. A. Ovchinnikov. Own production in Russia opened in June 2015 in St. Petersburg.

In 2006, Novartis sales in Russia grew by 53%, and the company took first place in the country, ahead of the previous leader Sanofi-Aventis . The total turnover of Novartis Group in Russia in 2006 amounted to $ 514 million.

The company sells such drugs in Russia as Voltaren Emulgel, Fornos, Lamisil, Tavegil , Teraflu, Fenistil , Dynamizan .

Conflicts

At the end of 2014, Novartis appealed to the Moscow Arbitration Court with a request to cancel the registration and sale until August 2016 of the domestic drug Neskler, included in the list of vital and essential drugs (Vital and Essential Drugs) , referring to 61-ФЗ “On Circulation of Medicines” , according to which “it is not allowed to receive, disclose, use for commercial purposes and for the purpose of state registration of drugs (medicinal product) information on the results of preclinical studies of drugs and "clinical trials of drugs submitted by the applicant for state registration of drugs without his consent for six years from the date of state registration of drugs". Neskler, created by the Russian biotechnology company Biointegrator of the ChemRar High- Tech Center, is a generic of the drug against remitting multiple sclerosis under the trade name Gilenia (the international non-proprietary name is fingolimod ) developed by Novartis and registered in Russia in August 2010. By the end of November 2015, the parties had already passed several instances of the arbitration court, but a final decision has not yet been made. According to the Union of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Clusters of Russia, if Novartis wins, a precedent will be created for a broad interpretation of the Russian law on the circulation of medicines, which could severely inhibit import substitution in the industry ^[15] .

The development of Novartis in pharmacology several times has led to significant progress in the treatment of serious diseases. In 1982, the immunosuppressive drug Sandimmun was created, which led to a sharp increase in the number of organ transplant operations worldwide.

The drug Sandostatin is used for bleeding from varicose veins of the esophagus and stomach and some other life-threatening conditions.

Glivec allowed a breakthrough in the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia .

For the development of Sandimmun and Sandostatin, the company was awarded the Galen Prizes, the development of Gleevec was awarded the in 2002 ^[16] .

Coartem for malaria has been prequalified by the World Health Organization . The drug was the first potent artemisinin-based combination drug available for public procurement ^[17] .

• Official Novartis AG website
• Novartis website in Russia
• Novartis AG on the website of the Securities and Exchange Commission