Sandoz, the generics and biosimilars business of Novartis, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to build a new biologics production plant in Lendava, Slovenia, with an investment of at least $400 million. Work on the new plant, which will support Sandoz’s biosimilars portfolio, is set to begin this year (2023), with full operations provisionally planned for late 2026. 

Sandoz also recently announced an additional EUR 50 million ($53 million) investment to expand its European-based antibiotics production network, bringing the total new investment commitment to its manufacturing network in the past few years to EUR 250 million ($265 million). Anti-infectives (primarily antibiotics) are the second largest Sandoz business after bio/pharmaceuticals. 

Novartis had announced in April 2022 its plans to spin off Sandoz into a new publicly traded stand-alone company, The spin-off is expected to be completed in the second half of 2023, subject to final Novartis Board of Directors and shareholder approvals. The stand-alone Sandoz would be headquartered in Switzerland and be listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, with an American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program in the US. 

Source: Novartis