Novartis
Swiss pharmaceutical group formed in 1996 from Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz and headquartered in Basel. It reported net sales of USD 54.5 billion for 2025.
Industry: Pharmaceuticals | Location: Basel, Switzerland | Founded: 1996
About Novartis
Novartis is a Swiss pharmaceutical company headquartered in Basel. It was created through the merger of two Basel-based firms, Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz Laboratories, which was approved by the European Commission on 17 July 1996. The new group began operations on 20 December 1996. Its name derives from the Latin novae artes, meaning new skills. Ciba-Geigy was itself the product of a 1970 combination of J. R. Geigy and CIBA, both founded in Basel in the 1850s. The Sandoz name disappeared for a few years after the merger and was revived in 2003, when Novartis consolidated its generic drugs businesses under it. The company develops and sells prescription medicines. According to its Form 20-F filing, Novartis reported net sales from continuing operations of USD 54.5 billion in 2025 and net income from continuing operations of USD 14.0 billion. Net sales grew 8 percent at constant exchange rates, and core operating income rose 14 percent at constant rates. The filing reports 75,267 full-time equivalent employees at the end of 2025, compared with 75,883 a year earlier. For 2026 the company has guided to low single-digit net sales growth. Vasant Narasimhan is chief executive and Giovanni Caforio is chairman. Novartis has a long-standing presence in the Gulf. Its operations in the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar have been managed from Dubai, while Saudi Arabia is covered by a separate local team. Job listings show the company hiring in Riyadh, including medical and evidence-generation roles posted in December 2025. In February 2026, Gulf Business reported that Novartis executives described the UAE as an emerging reference point for pharmaceutical innovation, citing a UAE pharmaceutical market valued at USD 4.15 billion and projected to double by 2033. The company said five of its medicines had been approved in the UAE within days of US FDA approval over the preceding year. Its stated priorities in the Gulf include digital health, AI-based diagnostics and nuclear medicine treatments for cancer. Novartis has worked with the Emirati Genome Program and supports the HELM cluster in Abu Dhabi. In 2021 it signed an agreement with the Abu Dhabi Department of Health on a population health model focused on cardiovascular disease. Novartis marked 30 years since its formation in 2026, describing the milestone as building on a longer history of discovery inherited from its predecessor companies.
Leadership
- Vasant Narasimhan, Chief Executive Officer
- Giovanni Caforio, Chair of the Board of Directors
- Mukul Mehta, Chief Financial Officer
- Patrick Horber, President, International
- Victor Bulto, President, US
- Shreeram Aradhye, President, Development, and Chief Medical Officer
- Fiona Marshall, President, Biomedical Research
- Steffen Lang, President, Operations