Novartis spinoff Sandoz to establish HQ in Basel

Novartis’ generics spinoff, Sandoz, has announced that it will be setting up its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, which is already home to Novartis. Sandoz’s offices will be located just 2.4 miles from its previous location, right in the heart of the city near the Basel SBB train station, as explained in a statement by the company.

The news of the new headquarters’ location comes amidst preparations for the spinoff.

The building chosen as the headquarters’ location is called Elsässertor. The new workplace is not only expected to facilitate closer collaboration between the two organizations but also enable the firm to tap into the talent pool in the Swiss city. The predicted date for the relocation is set for the middle of 2024.

The news of the spinoff was announced in August of last year to establish Sandoz as an independent company focusing on the generics and biosimilars business. To this end, the company will also be listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. Other details of the spinoff are expected to be finalized by the latter half of the current year.

As the company decides to go independent, efforts have also been made to strengthen the company’s product portfolio. This includes the purchase of the exclusive right to sell six small-molecule generics in the U.S. from Adalvo. While the exact names of the drugs purchased have not been disclosed, this would allow Sandoz to make significant strides in markets worth approximately $3 billion.

Furthermore, a multiyear deal has been struck with Evotec, under which Evotec will produce and develop biosimilar candidates for Sandoz.

The split between Novartis and Sandoz will create the largest generic company in Europe with an already established leading biosimilar presence worldwide.

However, it should be noted that the news of the spinoff was preceded by concerns regarding the financial underperformance of the generics giant in recent years. This led Novartis to conduct a strategic review of the unit in 2021, after which rumors regarding the possible sale of Sandoz also circulated.

Since 80% of Novartis’ sales and up to 90% of its profits come from new medicines, Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan has shared that, after the spinoff, the company will focus on developing new medicines.

Just last month, Novartis, Sandoz’s parent company, announced the names of eight new members who will join the board of directors of the new generic unit. So far, four board members are women. The new additions to the list include Francois-Xavier Roger, who previously served as the Chief Financial Officer at Nestle, and Aarti Shah, Ph.D., the former Chief Information and Digital Officer at Eli Lilly.

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