Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan pledged in a published interview that the Swiss drugmaker will not sell its generics unit amid a revamp that has prompted rumors about offloading Sandoz.
“We will make Sandoz autonomous within Novartis, so it’s more competitive. Our plan is to focus Sandoz and make it better in the long-term,” said the CEO to a German newspaper on Saturday.
Earlier this year, Sandoz announced a two-stage strategic "transformation" plan, which came with 900 layoffs. This news was preceded by the announcement that Richard Francis will be stepping down as CEO of Sandoz as of March 31 2019.
Sandoz, which had nearly $10 billion in sales last year, upgraded its full-year sales target on July 18, adding the possibility of low-single-digit percentage sales growth.
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