The Swiss pharmaceutical manufacturer Novartis is one of the biggest names in the pharmaceutical industry. As one of the top-selling pharmaceutical companies in the world, the Basel-based company is active in every area of pharmaceutical production. Accordingly, GMP inspections are carried out frequently at Novartis sites. Read more to learn about the history of Novartis!

The history and development of Novartis into one of the leading pharmaceutical manufacturers in Europe

Our series of articles on the history of the Big Five companies in the European pharmaceutical industry begins with Novartis. The company was formed in 1996 from the merger of the Swiss pharmaceutical manufacturers Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz. Both predecessor companies are based in Basel, Switzerland, and have their origins in dye production. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the focus shifted to the manufacture of pharmaceutical products and insecticides. Since the merger of the two manufacturers, the focus has been entirely on pharmaceuticals. Incidentally, the brand name "Sandoz" has come back since 2003, when Novartis merged its generics division under this name. Sandoz also has sites in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In the course of this year, Sandoz will become an independent spin-off company and listed on the Swiss stock exchange. By taking this step, Novartis intends to concentrate on the development of innovative pharmaceuticals. Novartis is also active in the field of ophthalmology, manufacturing medical devices such as contact lenses and eye drops. Novartis also has a vaccine division based in Marburg, Germany.

The importance of the Swiss manufacturer for the global pharmaceutical market

With sales of around 51.6 billion USD in 2021, Novartis is one of the largest companies in Switzerland and maintains its place among the Big Five in the global pharmaceutical industry. After Roche, Novartis is the second pharmaceutical company that makes Switzerland one of the world's leading pharmaceutical sites. Novartis’ Austrian subsidiary, based in Vienna, is Austria's largest pharmaceutical company. In Germany, Novartis is the pharmaceutical company with the highest revenue. The company boasts over 103,000 employees worldwide is, with around 7,000 employees in Germany. Novartis' most successful pharmaceutical products include the breast cancer medication Femara, the leukemia medication Gleevec and the pain relief gel Voltaren. Of course, the company has subsidiaries worldwide and is also active in the lucrative US market. In 2020, Novartis took over the American pharmaceutical company The Medicine Company. As early as 2005, Novartis acquired the rights to over-the-counter medicines from the manufacturer BMS for the US market. Over the course of the 2010s, Novartis continued to gradually restructure the company through acquisitions and swaps. The company’s increasingly international direction naturally goes hand in hand with the growing importance of language services provided by GMP translators and interpreters.

Global expansion increases the need for pharmaceutical interpreters and GMP translators

Every company that is active internationally needs staff who are proficient in English and other foreign languages. For the special requirements of pharmaceutical manufacturers such as Novartis, however, it is by no means enough to be "proficient" in a foreign language. Pharmaceutical translations require a high level of specialist knowledge - not only in the pharmaceutical sector, but also in medicine, for example. For GMP inspections, highly specialized pharmaceutical interpreters are booked to interpret into the respective native language for the site employees and the foreign GMP inspectors. If, for example, a drug produced by Novartis is to be approved in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Russian interpreters are indispensable for the GMP inspection. For the US market, GMP inspectors from the FDA are responsible for inspecting compliance with American GMP guidelines. Of course, global players such as Novartis rely on professional interpreters with a specialization in pharmacy to maximize their chances of passing a GMP inspection.

With around 2,500 employees, Novartis Germany is headquartered in Nuremberg, which is also home to our team of qualified GMP translators and pharmaceutical interpreters. From here, we have already supervised numerous remote GMP inspections, which is the predominant mode of GMP inspections during the pandemic. Of course, no distance is too far for us to ensure smooth communication in German, Russian and English during on-site inspections.

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