public company ag traded as six novn nyse nvs bse 500672 a subsidiary novartis india ltd. industry pharmaceuticals founded 1996 ; 20 years ago 1996 from merger headquarters basel switzerland key people joerg reinhardt chairman joseph jimenez ceo products pharmaceuticals generic drugs over the counter drugs vaccines diagnostics contact lenses animal health list ... revenue us 50.359 billion 2015 1 operating income us 8.845 billion 2015 1 net income us 17.783 billion 2015 1 total assets us 131.55 billion 2015 1 total equity us 77.046 billion 2015 1 number of employees 118 700 2015 1 subsidiaries ciba vision sandoz alcon chiron corporation website www.novartis.com novartis international ag is a swiss multinational pharmaceutical company based in basel switzerland ranking number one in sales 57.9 billion us among the world wide industry in 2013 . 2 in july 2015 novartis had a market cap of around 280 billion 3 making it the largest healthcare company by this metric . novartis manufactures such drugs as clozapine clozaril diclofenac voltaren carbamazepine tegretol valsartan diovan and imatinib mesylate gleevec glivec . additional agents include ciclosporin neoral sandimmun letrozole femara methylphenidate ritalin terbinafine lamisil and others . in 1996 ciba geigy merged with sandoz and the pharmaceutical and agrochemical divisions of both companies formed novartis as an independent entity . other ciba geigy and sandoz businesses were sold or like ciba specialty chemicals spun off as independent companies . the sandoz brand disappeared for 3 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 . novartis is a full member of the european federation of pharmaceutical industries and associations efpia 4 the international federation of pharmaceutical manufacturers and associations ifpma 5 and the pharmaceutical research and manufacturers of america phrma . 6 contents 1 corporate structure 2 place in its market segments 3 history 3.1 ciba geigy 3.2 sandoz before formation of novartis 3.3 post merger 3.3.1 2015 3.4 acquisition history 4 research 5 basel headquarters campus redesign 6 products 6.1 pharmaceuticals 6.2 consumer health 6.3 animal health 6.3.1 pet care 6.3.2 livestock 6.3.3 bioprotection insect and rodent control 7 controversies and criticism 7.1 challenge to india s patent laws 7.2 sexual discrimination suit 7.3 marketing violations 7.4 fighting off label prescribing 7.5 valsartan data scandal 8 see also 9 notes and references 10 further reading 11 external links corporate structure edit novartis ag is a publicly traded swiss holding company that operates through the novartis group . novartis ag owns directly or indirectly all companies worldwide that operate as subsidiaries of the novartis group . 7 117 the businesses of novartis are divided into three operating divisions pharmaceuticals alcon eye care and sandoz generics . 7 150 novartis operates directly and through dozens of subsidiaries in countries around the world each of which fall under one of the divisions and that novartis categorizes as fulfilling one or more of the following functions holding finance the entity is a holding company and or performs finance functions for the group ; sales the entity performs sales and marketing activities for the group ; production the entity performs manufacturing and or production activities for the group ; and research the entity performs research and development activities for the group . 7 251 253 novartis ag also holds 33.3 % of the shares of roche however it does not exercise control over roche . novartis also owned 24.9 % of idenix pharmaceuticals prior to its sale to merck & co inc. 7 117 novartis also has two significant license agreements with genentech a roche subsidiary . one agreement is for lucentis ; the other is for xolair both of which novartis markets outside the us . 7 239 novartis has established a multi functional centre at hyderabad india in order to offshore several of its r & d clinical development medical writing and administrative functions . 8 the global service centre began in 2001 with 17 people and hyderabad was chosen from a shortlist of 23 cities including pune chennai and gurgaon . 9 the centre supports the drug major s operations in the pharmaceuticals novartis eye care alcon and generic drugs segments sandoz . this centre is more than 870 000 square feet in size large enough to house 8000 people . 10 novartis 11 ceo joseph jimenez & executive committee of novartis innovative business division surgical and vision care division generics division novartis pharmaceuticals ceo paul hudson 12 novartis oncology ceo bruno strigini 13 alcon sandoz place in its market segments edit overall novartis was the world s second largest pharmaceutical company in 2011 . 14 an ims health report ranked novartis as the biggest pharma company in 2012 . 15 alcon alcon was already the world s largest and most profitable eye care company when novartis bought it with 2009 annual sales of 6.5 billion and net income of 2 billion . at that time novartis stated that it believed the two companies could generate approximately 200 million of potential annual pre tax cost synergies . 16 sandoz as of 2013 update sandoz was the world s second largest generic drug company contributing us 1.09 billion to novartis operating profit on us 8.70 billion in revenue in 2012 . 17 sandoz biosimilars leads its field getting the first biosimilar approvals in the eu . 18 19 vaccines and diagnostics as of 2013 update novartis was considering selling this division off . while sales in the unit were up 14 % for the first half of 2013 it reported an operating loss of 240 million in the first half of 2013 after a 250 million loss for all 2012 ... . vaccine revenue was 1.4 billion in 2012 and has been forecast to more than double to 3.14 billion by 2018 . 20 consumer novartis is not a leader in the over the counter or animal health segments ; its leading otc brands are excedrin and theraflu but sales have been slowed by problems at its key us manufacturing plant . 21 in 2012 novartis ranked 7th on the access to medicine index 22 88 which ranks companies on how readily they make their products available to the world s poor . 23 in 2010 novartis was in the top three pharma companies as it was in 2008 . 23 history edit novartis was created in 1996 from the merger of ciba geigy and sandoz laboratories both swiss companies with long histories . ciba geigy was formed in 1970 by the merger of j. r. geigy ltd founded in basel in 1758 and ciba founded in basel in 1859 . combining the histories of the merger partners the company s effective history spans 250 years . 24 ciba geigy edit in 1859 alexander clavel 1805 1873 took up the production of fuchsine in his factory for silk dyeing works in basel . in 1864 a new site for the production of synthetic dyes was constructed and in 1873 clavel sold his dye factory to the new company bindschedler and busch . in 1884 bindschedler and busch was transformed into a joint stock company with the name gesellschaft f r chemische industrie basel company for chemical industry basel . the acronym ciba was adopted as the company s name in 1945 . johann rudolf geigy gemuseus 1733 1793 began trading in 1758 in materials chemicals dyes and drugs of all kinds 25 26 in basel switzerland . johann rudolf geigy merian 1830 1917 and johann muller pack acquired a site in basel in 1857 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 . in 1925 j. r. geigy ltd. began producing textile auxiliaries 27 an activity which ciba took up in 1928 . in 1939 geigy chemist paul hermann m ller discovered that ddt was effective against malaria bearing insects . he received the 1948 nobel prize in medicine for this work . ciba and geigy merged in 1971 to form ciba geigy ltd. si b a i . in the united states the geigy staff relocated to join the ciba staff at its american headquarters for research in ardsley new york . in 1980 ciba geigy set up the company ciba vision to enter the contact lens market . 28 in 1992 ciba geigy agreed to pay new jersey 62 million for illegal waste dumping . 29 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 . 30 31 notably ciba specialty chemicals was spun out as an independent company 31 32 and 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 and its north american corn herbicide business was sold off to the german chemical maker basf a.g. 32 sandoz before formation of novartis edit sandoz redirects here . for other uses see sandoz disambiguation . before the 1996 merger with ciba geigy to form novartis sandoz pharmaceuticals sandoz ag was a pharmaceutical company headquartered in basel switzerland as was ciba geigy 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 kern and sandoz chemistry firm was founded in 1886 by alfred kern 1850 1893 and edouard sandoz 1853 1928 . 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 1887 1971 who is the founder of sandoz s pharmaceutical department in 1917 . 33 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 1921 and calcium sandoz 1929 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 lsd were discovered at the sandoz laboratories in 1943 by arthur stoll and albert hofmann . 34 35 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 36 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 . 37 research on lsd peaked in the 1950s and early 1960s . sandoz withdrew the drug from the market in the mid 1960s . the drug became a cultural novelty of the 1960s after psychologist timothy leary at harvard university began to promulgate 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 known for ovomaltine and isostar . sandoz acquired the companies delmark wasabr d a