Novartis in record biotech deal

10 May 2000



Novartis in record biotech deal

SWISS life sciences giant Novartis has formed a biotechnology alliance with Vertex of Boston in a US$800 million (525m) deal thought to be the biggest in the history of the industry.

Vertex will seek to discover drugs which react with proteins which play an important role transmitting signals between and within cells, reports the Financial Times.

Novartis and UK life science company AstraZeneca are spinning off and merging their agrochemical businesses to create the worlds largest agrochemicals business

The new company, Syngenta, will be based in Basel in Switzerland.

• Financial Times 10/05/2000 page 38