1 Novartis (Bangladesh) Limited: an overview

2.1 Formation path of Novartis

The name Novartis is derived from the Latin "Novae Artes" which means new skills
.
On March 07, 1996, an earthshaking announcement was made to the business world:
Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy, the two Swiss-based chemical/life sciences giants, had ag
reed to become one. Novartis, as the new company was called, was at that time th
e result of the largest corporate merger in history. Both Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy
already had a rich history of their own.

2.2 Mission
We want to discover, develop and successfully market innovative products to cure
diseases, to ease suffering, and to enhance the quality of life. We also want t
o provide a shareholder return that reflects outstanding performance and to adeq
uately reward those who invest ideas and work in our company.
2.3 Aspirations
We want to be recognized for having a positive impact on people's lives with our
products, meeting needs and even surpassing external expectations.
We strive to create sustainable earnings growth, ranking in the top quartile of
the industry and securing long-term business success.
We want to build a reputation for an exciting workplace in which people can real
ize their professional ambitions.
We strive for a motivating environment where creativity and effectiveness are en
couraged and where cutting-edge technologies are applied. In addition, we want t
o contribute to society through our economic contribution, through the positive
environmental and social benefits of our products, and through open dialogue wit
h our stakeholders.
2.3 Novartis (Bangladesh) Limited: Company History
The state-of-art manufacturer plant of Novartis (Bangladesh) Limited was establi
shed in 1989 with an annual capacity of producing 200 million tablets/capsules.
In 2002 production facilities expand and with this expansion of the plant capaci
ty increased to annual production of 500 million tablets/capsules.
From early 1970, Novartis- then well known Ciba-Geigy- engaged in trading with v
arious chemical and healthcare products in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh group comp
any was introduced in 1973 with the 40% participation of Bangladesh Chemical Ind
ustries Corporation (BCIC). In a first venture agreement of both partners in 198
0 the investment in a crop protection formulation plant in Chittagong was implem
ented.
In a second joint venture agreement in 1988 NBL and BCIC invested in a pharmaceu
ticals production plant in Tongi, which operated as from 1990 with life-saving p
roducts fitting the needs of the country.
In 2000, Novartis decided to go on a global basis to spin-off the agro business
and henceforth to concentrate on healthcare. This affected also the Bangladesh g
roup company.
The former crop protection business of NBL at present continuing with the busine
ss partner BCIC, under the authority of Syngenta as a separate legal entity.
The Sandoz Business Unit of NBL is the owner of this plant. The plant is located
about 20 kilometers north of Dhaka city and covers an area of about 36634 sq me
ters. The site is surrounded in the north 10 m wide road beyond the village of T
ongi, in the west bordering on fields, in the east to a pharmaceutical factory o
f Eskayef, and in the south and southwest the side is adjacent to the river Tura
g.
The site comprises of building of pharmaceutical production, Quality Control and
IT, for warehouse, for engineering support, for product development, for animal
health production for office and canteen, for storage of inflammable substances
, for diesel storage of generator, for catering, for incinerator, for pump house
, for gate, for waste water treatment plant, for car workshop, for guest house a
nd guard barrack.
The first buildings were raised in 1989 and commercial manufacturing was initiat
ed in 1990.
Pharmaceutical Production comprises of two sections dealing with Manufacturing a
nd Packaging. Most of the active substances used in the manufacturing are suppli
ed by Novartis International Limited, Basel & Sandoz GmbH (a Novartis Company) K
undl, Austria.
Most of the auxiliaries used for production are bought from approved supply sour
ce of Novartis AG, Basel, Switzerland and Sandoz GmbH Austria. Packaging materia
ls are bought from third parties with the global standard set for the pharmaceut
icals industries.
Apart from producing globally developed research & generics drugs, traditionally
Tongi Plant was instrumental in local development of finished pharmaceuticals p
roducts e.g. Famoodine, Ciprofloxacin, Omeprazole, Sparfloxacine etc. Since 1997
, Tongi Plant is in the export market, after expansion of the plant it became th
e global supply point for Novartis generics. NBL Tongi Plant is instrumental in
transferring technology to many other Novartis manufacturing sires and also acti
ng as a competent center for the products coming out from Tongi Plant.