Daniel Vasella, Novartis
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Daniel Vasella will remain as chairman of the board of Novartis, Basel-based pharmaceutical multinational, but he is stepping down as the multinational’s CEO. The news was announced as Novartis reported an 8 percent increase in profits, $10.3 billion, and turnover of $46 billion for 2009.
Vasella has led the company since the group was created by the merger in 1996 of Ciba and Sandoz.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Basel-based healthcare products Novartis has agreed to buy out the majority shareholding in Alcon, eyecare specialists, from Vevey-based Nestlé, for CHF28.1 billion. Novartis paid $10.4 in 2008 for a 25 percent share and it has offered to buy the remaining 23 percent share for an additional $11.2b, bringing the total price for the company to CHF49.7b. The news was greeted with enthusiasm by markets, reports the Financial Times, with a 0.4 percent jump in the FTSE at opening Monday, normally a dismal post-holiday trading session.
Business Week reports that the sale leaves Nestlé in good shape for a major acquisition.
Novartis on the Rhine, at Basel © Novartis AG
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss drugs maker, Novartis, has acquired 85 percent of Chinese vaccine maker Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical Co. for $125 million, subject to government approval, the company announced 4 November. Tianyuan is a privately held company with sales of $25 million in the $1 billion Chinese market for vaccines, the world’s third-largest.
Novartis says it wants to use its purchase to build a market-leader: it will concentrate on expanding Tianyuan’s portfolio and R&D pipeline, improving its manufacturing technologies and its commercial outlets. Novartis also hopes to be able to introduce its products into the Chinese market where it has a limited presence, with some flu and rabies vaccines.
Flu virus © 2009 Novartis AG
Update 19.09 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland joins other major industrialized nations in reserving 10 percent of the vaccines for donation to poorer countries, under the auspices of the World Health Organization, an initiative proposed by US President Barack Obama, the Swiss government announced.
The Swiss government has bought 13 million doses of swine flu vaccine from Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to cover the 7.7 million population in the country. Deliveries will start at the end of September. The cantons will organize vaccinations, while the costs will be shared among the central government, the cantons and the health insurance industry, the government announced 18 September.
Health workers and those who work with infants under six months of age, as well as people at risk will be vaccinated before the general population, the government says. The cost to individuals will be slightly less than CHF20 per vaccine. The charge covers materials and the actual vaccination, but not the vaccine dose.
Latest tests by GSK in Canada indicate that a single dose of the vaccine provides immunity against the flu. Most countries have budgeted a double-dose vaccination campaign against swine flu.
Related: Swiss government site on prevention, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Viral Flu, © 2009 Novartis AG
Basel and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss drugs maker Novartis said 5 August it had begun trials of a swine flu vaccine on humans in Germany, the US and the UK. If the trials are successful, the vaccine could be approved by regulators using a fast-track approvals process in Europe and the US. Large-scale production would then be ramped up in time for the northern hemisphere’s flu season in autumn.
All major drugs manufacturers are racing to finish human trials in order to begin production of a vaccine. Australian drugs manufacturers announced last month that they had begun human trials.
Fast track procedures take into account strain changes
The WHO (World Health Organization) says that fast-track procedures worked out by regulators in many countries are based on existing procedures for approving seasonal flu vaccines, which take into account small changes in the flu virus, so-called “strain changes.”
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Austrian police are investigating a case of possible arson at a hunting lodge in Bach, Austria, near Innsbruck, that belongs to Daniel Vasella, CEO of phamaceutical giant Novartis. More than 100 firemen put out the blaze, which witnesses say broke out early 3 August out after a dull explosion was heard at the property. According to a Novartis spokesperson, a “professional fire accelerator” was used.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Pharmaceutical giant Novartis saw net sales grow 8 percent in local currencies, but slip 2 percent in US dollars in the first six months of 2009. Exchange rates had significant impact on profits, which fell by 12 percent to CHF4.32 billion, compared to the same period in 2008. Company CEO Daniel Vasella notes in the company’s press release on results that the company expects to “continue record underlying results in constant currencies.”
Versoix, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Six cases of swine flu have been confirmed among children attending the College du Léman summer school at Versoix, near Geneva, reports Romandie news. They will spend the next seven days in isolation in a nearby villa. Four other cases are under investigation.
Scissors award 2008 for biggest salary spread: ABB
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The salary spread between the lowest-paid worker and a member of the board in Swiss companies has increased 72 percent since 2002. While ordinary workers’ salaries have increased 8.4 percent during this seven-year period, the average board member’s pay has gone up 83 percent.
The figures were relased by Travail.Suisse Monday 15 July. They are the result of the fifth survey it has carried out of 27 Swiss corporate groups’ pay packages.
Travail.Suisse is an independent association that represents the interests of workers. It gave its annual award for the greatest spread in salaries to ABB at a press conference in Bern 15 June and called on the government to heed public cries to stop what it calls “indecent” salaries for top managers and board members.
Drug maker Novartis said it had no plans to donate the A/H1N1 vaccine the company is developing to poorer nations, chief executive Daniel Vasella told the Financial Times. WHO (World Health Organization) director general Margaret Chan has urged drugs makers to show solidarity with poorer nations that may not be able to afford to purchase the vaccine. Other pharmaceutical companies, such as GlaxoSmith Kline have announced their willingness to donate a portion of their production, the FT reports.
The United Kingdom announced over the weekend its first death to swine flu, making this the first fatality outside of the Americas since the virus was first detected in late March.
Used with permission of Novartis Vaccines, June 2007. © Novartis Vaccines, click to enlarge
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss drugs manufacturer Novartis announced 12 June that it had successfully produced an antivirus effective against the wild type of A/H1N1 swine flu virus that is at pandemic levels using new cell-based technology.
The news comes hot on the heels of the widely expected World Health Organization’s (WHO) announcement 11 June of a phase six pandemic, the highest level. The drugs maker says that its cell-based production technology will allow it to produce vaccines much more quickly than by using the traditional method of adapting the virus strain to grow in eggs. It has a production facility in Marburg, Germany that can produce millions of doses a week.
Following further testing and clinical trials on the “wild strain” antivirus, Novartis hopes to be able to produce, test and deploy an antivirus for the reassortant A/H1N1 strain provided by the US Centers for Disease Control by this autumn.
Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – TSR, Swiss public television, will run a documentary 5 February following its own investigation into charges by Colombian authorities that Jean-Pierre Gontard paid CHF500,000 in ransom money to Farc rebels in order to gain the release of Novartis employees taken hostage.
Novartis, Basel
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Novartis brought cheering news to an otherwise gloomy set of international corporate figures this week, but the company’s shares nevertheless slipped in Wednesday morning trading. Net profits were up 25% in 2008, to CHF9.2 billion and the company proposed a dividend increase of 25%.
Washington, DC, USA (CS Monitor and TSR/ats, Fre) – The US Supreme Court has accepted a lower federal court decision that allows a large group of plaintiffs to seek $400 billion in damages from 50 multinationals who are accused of breaking an international embargo on South Africa during its period of apartheid. The group includes several Swiss companies: UBS, Credit Suisse, Holcim, Ems Chemie, Novartis, Nestlé, Unaxis and Sulzer.
Vevey and Basel, Switzerland (Le Temps) – Nestlé and Novartis Monday released information about their first quarter 2007 performances, with both continuing to show strong sales and turnover. Nestlé’s turnover was up 6.4% over a year earlier, at SFr 24.3 billion and Novartis reported turnover up 18% to $9.82 billion.
