Novartis - Definition and Overview

Novartis, a pharmaceutical company, had its origins in the merger of the CIBA-Geigy and Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland.

In 1998, the company made headlines with its biotechnology licensing agreement with the UC Berkeley Department of Plant and Microbial Biology. Critics of the agreement were concerned that the agreement would diminish academic objectivity or that it would lead to the commercialization of genetically modified plants. The agreement expired in 2003.

Novartis combined its agricultural division with that of AstraZeneca to create Syngenta in November of 2000.

Sandoz is best known for synthesizing LSD in 1938. They later marketed it (under the trade name Delysid) as a psychiatric miracle cure from 1947 through the early 1960s. Nowadays, Sandoz is a producer of generics.

Diversity

Novartis was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine.