the predecessor brand name of sandoz. in 2005, novartis expanded its subsidiary sandoz significantly through the us$8.29 billion acquisition of hexal, one of germany's leading generic drug companies, and eon labs, a fast-growing united states generic pharmaceutical company. in 2006, novartis acquired the california-based chiron corporation. chiron had been divided into three units: chiron vaccines, chiron blood testing, and chiron biopharmaceuticals. the biopharmaceutical unit was integrated into novartis pharmaceuticals, while the vaccines and blood testing units were made into a new novartis vaccines and diagnostics division. also in 2006, sandoz became the first company to have a biosimilar drug approved in europe with its recombinant human growth hormone drug. in 2007, novartis sold the gerber products company to nestlé as part of its continuing effort to shed old sandoz and ciba-geigy businesses and focus on healthcare. in 2009, novartis reached an agreement to acquire an 85 percent stake in the chinese vaccines company zhejiang tianyuan bio-pharmaceutical co., ltd. as part of a strategic initiative to build a vaccines industry leader in this country and expand the group's limited presence in this fast-growing market segment. this proposed acquisition will require government and regulatory approvals in china. in 2010, novartis offered to pay us$39.3 billion to fully acquire alcon, the world's largest eye-care company, including a majority stake held by nestlé. novartis had bought 25 percent of alcon in 2008. novartis created a new division and called it alcon, under which it placed its ciba vision subsidiary and novartis ophthalmics, which became the second-largest division of novartis. the total cost for alcon amounted to $60 billion. 2011–present in 2011, novartis acquired the medical laboratory diagnostics company genoptix to "serve as a strong foundation for our (novartis') individualized treatment programs". in 2012, the company cut ~2000 positions in the united states, primarily in sales, in response to anticipated revenue downturns from the hypertension drug diovan, which was losing patent protection, and the realization that the anticipated successor to diovan, rasilez, was failing in clinical trials. the 2012 personnel reductions follow ~2000 cut positions in switzerland and the united states in 2011, ~1400 cut positions in the united states in 2010, and a reduction of "thousands" and several site closures in previous years. also in 2012, novartis became the biggest manufacturer of generic skin care medicine, after agreeing to buy fougera pharmaceuticals for $1.525 billion in cash. in 2013, the indian supreme court issued a decision rejecting novartis' patent application in india on the final form of gleevec, novartis's cancer drug; the case caused great controversy. in 2013, novartis was sued again by the us government, this time for allegedly bribing doctors for a decade so that their patients are steered towards the company's drugs. in january 2014, novartis announced plans to cut 500 jobs from its pharmaceuticals division. in february 2014, novartis announced that it acquired costim pharmaceuticals. in may 2014, novartis purchased the rights to market ophthotech's fovista (an anti-pdgf aptamer, also being investigated for use in combination with anti-vegf treatments) outside the u.s. for up to $1 billion. novartis acquired exclusive rights to market the eye drug outside of the states while retaining u.s. marketing rights. the company agreed to pay ophthotech $200 million upfront, and $130 million in milestone payments relating to phase iii trials. ophthotech is also eligible to receive up to $300 million dependent upon future marketing approval milestones outside of america and up to $400 million relating to sales milestones. in september 2014, ophthotech received its first $50 million phase iii trial milestone payment from novartis. in april 2014, novartis announced that it would acquire glaxosmithkline's cancer drug business for $16 billion as well as selling its vaccines business to glaxosmithkline for $7.1 billion. in august 2014 genetic engineering & biotechnology news reported that novartis had acquired a 15 percent stake in gamida cell for $35 million, with the option to purchase the whole company for approximately $165 million. in october 2014, novartis announced its intention to sell its influenza vaccine business (inclusive of its development pipeline), subject to regulatory approval, to csl for $275 million. in march 2015, the company announced biopharma had completed its acquisition of two phase iii cancer-drug candidates; the mek inhibitor binimetinib (mek 162) and the braf inhibitor encorafenib (lgx818), for $85 million. in addition, the company sold its rnai portfolio to arrowhead research for $10 million and $25 million in stock. in june, the company announced it would acquire spinifex pharmaceuticals for more than $200 million. in august, the company acquired the remaining rights to the cd20 monoclonal antibody ofatumumab from glaxosmithkline for up to $1 billion. in october the company acquired admune therapeutics for an undisclosed sum, as well as licensing pbf-509, an adenosine a2a receptor antagonist which is in phase i clinical trials for non-small cell lung cancer, from palobiofarma. in november 2016, the company announced it would acquire selexys pharmaceuticals for $665 million. in december, the company acquired encore vision, gaining the company's principle compound, ev06, is a first-in-class topical therapy for presbyopia. in december novartis acquired ziarco group limited, bolstering its presence in eczema treatments. in late october 2017, reuters announced that novartis would acquire advanced accelerator applications for $3.9 billion, paying $41 per ordinary share and $82 per american depositary share representing a 47 percent premium. in march 2018, glaxosmithkline announced that it has reached an agreement with novartis to acquire novartis' 36.5 percent stake in their consumer healthcare joint venture for $13 billion (£9.2 billion). in april of the same year, the business utilised some of the proceeds from the aforementioned glaxosmithkline deal to acquire avexis for $218 per share or $8.7 billion in total, gaining the lead compound avxs-101 used to treat spinal muscular atrophy. in august 2018, novartis signed a deal with laekna-a shanghai-based pharmaceutical company for its two clinical-stage cancer drugs. novartis gave laekna the exclusive international rights for the drugs that are oral pan-akt kinase inhibitors namely; afuresertib (asb138) and uprosertib (upb795). in mid-october, the company announced it would acquire endocyte inc for $2.1 billion ($24 per share) merging it with a newly created subsidiary. endocyte will bolster novartis' offering in its radiopharmaceuticals business, with endocyte's first in class candidate 177lu-psma-617 being targeted against metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. in late december the company announced it would acquire france-based contract manufacturer, cellforcure from lfb, boosting its capacity to produce cell and gene therapies. on april 9, 2019, novartis announced that it had completed the spin-off of alcon as a separate commercial entity. alcon was listed on the six exchange in switzerland and nyse exchange in the u.s. novartis announced during late 2019 a five-year artificial intelligence "alliance" with microsoft. the companies aim to create applications for "microsoft's ai capabilities", in turn improving the other's drug development processes. microsoft seeks to "test ai products it is already working on in 'real-life' situations". the deal will pursue solutions for "organizing and using" data generated from novartis' laboratory experiments, clinical trials, and manufacturing plants. it will also look at improving manufacturing of chimeric antigen receptor t cell (car t cells). finally, the deal "will also apply ai to generative chemistry to enhance drug design". in november 2019, sandoz announced it would acquire the japanese business of aspen global inc for €300 million (around $330 million), boosting the business's presence in asia. in late november 2019, the business announced it would acquire the medicines company for us$9.7 billion ($85 per share) in order to acquire amongst other assets, the cholesterol lowering therapy; inclisiran. in april 2020, the company announced it would acquire amblyotech. in september 2020, novartis was imposed a fine of €385 million by the french competition authority on accusations of abusive practices to preserve sales of lucentis over a cheaper drug. also in september, biontech has leased a large production facility from novartis to follow all advance demands for its coronavirus vaccine in europe and sell it to china. in october novartis announced it would acquire vedere bio for $280 million boosting the businesses cell and gene therapy offerings. in october 2020, as part of a joint venture to develop therapeutic drugs to combat covid-19, novartis bought 6% of all shares outstanding in swiss darpin research company molecular partners ag at chf 23 per share. in december 2020, novartis announced it would acquire cadent therapeutics for up to $770 million, gaining full rights to cad-9303 (a nmdar positive allosteric modulator), mij-821 (a nmdar negative allosteric modulator) and cad-1883 a clinical-stage sk channel positive allosteric modulator. in september 2021, the company announced it would acquire gene-therapy business, arctos medical, broadening its optogenetics range. in december, novartis announced it would purchase gyroscope therapeutics from health care investment company, syncona ltd, for up to $1.5 billion. in february 2022, new york city-based biotechnology company cambrian biopharma announced it had licensed rights to mtor inhibitor programs from novartis. as part of the deal, cambrian was setting up a subsidiary called tornado therapeutics. in august 2022, the company announced its plan to spin off sandoz generic drugs unit to form a publicly traded business as part of a restructuring. with the unit having generated us$9.69 billion in 2021, the spin-off would create the biggest generic drugs company in europe by sales. acquisition history novartis acquisitions novartis novartis (merger of ciba-geigy and sandoz, 1996) ciba-geigy j. r. geigy ltd (merged 1971) ciba (merged 1971) sandoz kern and sandoz chemistry firm (founded 1886) wander ag (acq 1967) lek d.d. (slovenia) (acq 2002) aspen global inc (japanese business) (acq 2019) hexal (acq 2005) eon labs (acq 2005) chiron corporation (acq 2006) matrix pharmaceuticals inc (acq 2002) powderject (acq 2003) pathogenesis (acq 2001) cetus corporation cetus oncology biocine company chiron diagnostics chiron intraoptics chiron technologies adatomed gmbh zhejiang tianyuan bio-pharmaceutical co., ltd (acq 2009) alcon (founded 1945, acq 2010) texas pharmacal company (acq 1979) genoptix (acq 2011) fougera pharmaceuticals (acq 2012) costim pharmaceuticals (acq 2014) glaxosmithkline (cancer drug division) (acq 2014) spinifex pharmaceuticals (acq 2015) admune therapeutic (acq 2015) selexys pharmaceuticals (acq 2016) ziarco group limited (acq 2016) advanced accelerator applications (acq 2018) avexis (acq 2018) endocyte (acq 2018) cellforcure (acq 2018) the medicines company (acq 2019) amblyotech (acq 2020) vedere bio (acq 2020) cadent therapeutics (acq 2020) luc therapeutics (merged 2017) ataxion therapeutics (merged 2017) arctos medical (acq 2021) gyroscope therapeutics (acq 2021) research novartis in cambridge, massachusetts in november 2019. the company's global research operations, called "novartis institutes for biomedical research (nibr)" have their global headquarters in cambridge, massachusetts, united states. two research institutes reside within nibr that focus on diseases in the developing world: novartis institute for tropical diseases, which works on tuberculosis, dengue, and malaria, and novartis vaccines institute for global health, which works on salmonella typhi (typhoid fever) and shigella. novartis is also involved in publicly funded collaborative research projects, with other industrial and academic partners. one example in the area of non-clinical safety assessment is the innomed predtox project. the company is expanding its activities in joint research projects within the framework of the innovative medicines initiative of efpia and the european commission. novartis is working with science 37 in order to allow video based telemedicine visits instead of physical traveling to clinics for patients. it is planning for ten clinical trials over three years using mobile technology to help free patients from burdensome hospital trips. products pharmaceuticals (66 in total as of april 28, 2023) nameindication(s) or drug type/classsales us$1,000,000sales year% changenotes aclasta/reclast (zoledronic acid)osteoporosis5902012−4% adelphane-esidrex (reserpine/dihydralazine/hydrochlorothiazide)hypertension afinitor/certican/zortress (everolimus)prevention of transplant rejection, various cancers797201280% amturnide (aliskiren/amlodipine/hydrochlorothiazide)hypertension anafranil (clomipramine)major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder arcapta neohaler/onbrez breezhaler (indacaterol)copd brinaldix (clopamide)hypertension clozaril/leponex (clozapine)treatment-resistant schizophrenia co-diovan (valsartan/hydrochlorothiazide)hypertension coartem/riamet (artemether/lumefantrine)malaria (uncomplicated) comtan (entacapone)parkinson's disease5302012−14% cosentyx (secukinumab)psoriasis diovan (valsartan)hypertension4,4172012−22% entresto (sacubitril/valsartan)heart failure enterovioform (clioquinol)amoebiasis eucreas/galvus met (vildagliptin/metformin)diabetes mellitus type 2 exelon patch (rivastigmine)alzheimer's disease1,0502012−2% exforge (amlodipine/valsartan)hypertension1,352201212% exjade (deferasirox)chronic iron overload87020122%manufactured as tablets for oral suspension; tablets for oral use are marketed under the brand name jadenu famvir (famciclovir)herpes zoster and other herpesvirus infection fanapt (iloperidone)schizophrenia femara (letrozole)breast cancer4382012−52% focalin (dexmethylphenidate)adhdfirst us generics of focalin became available in 2007 focalin xr became available in 2012. foradil/foradile (formoterol)asthma, copd galvus (vildagliptin)diabetes mellitus type 2910201239% gilenya (fingolimod)multiple sclerosis1,1952012142% gleevec/glivec (imatinib)oncology, chronic myelogenous leukemia4,67520120% hygroton (chlortalidone)hypertension ilaris (canakinumab)cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome jadenu (deferasirox)chronic iron overloaddeferasirox tablets for oral use—a new formulation of exjade (which comes in tablets for oral suspension) jakavi/jakafi (ruxolitinib)myelofibrosis (of intermediate to