The Swiss pharmaceutical giant will IPO Sandoz, its generics subsidiary.
Sandoz, the generic drugs subsidiary of Novartis will soon be on its own. The Swiss pharmaceutical giant announced Thursday its intention to IPO soon. “Our strategic review considered all options for Sandoz and concluded that a spin-off is in the best interests of shareholders,” explains Joerg Reinhardt, president of Novartis in a press release.
The objective is to allow Sandoz, once independent, to become the number one in Europe for generic drugs and a world leader in biosimilars (the equivalent of generics for biological drugs).
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Sandoz, which makes antibiotics, painkillers, cancer drugs and treatments for heart and respiratory diseases, among others, had sales of $9.6 billion last year (nearly 20% of 52, $9 billion in Novartis revenue). However, its growth is less significant than that of the…