On 4 October, Novartis completed the spin-off of Sandoz, its generic and biosimilar business unit, enabling it to focus exclusively on the development and sale of proprietary medicines. The long anticipated transaction involved the listing of Sandoz Group AG shares on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich, Switzerland and its American Depositary Receipts on an over-the-counter market in the US. Each shareholder of Novartis received one Sandoz share for every five Novartis shares held, or one Sandoz ADR for every five Novartis ADRs.
