Novartis' number of full-time employees 2009-2023

Novartis is a multinational pharmaceutical company based out of Basel, Switzerland. In 2018, the company saw its highest number of full-time employees in history with over 125,000 employees. In 2023, the company's workforce dropped to around 76 thousand full-time employees due to the spin-off of generic drug division Sandoz.

Novartis’ company profile

As of 2023, Novartis had two company divisions: "Promoted brands" and "Established brands". Oncology is the most important therapeutic area generating around one quarter of the company’s total revenue. Until the spin-off in mid-2023, Sandoz was the company’s generics and biosimilars pharmaceutical division with a global focus. Until April 2019, Alcon was Novartis' division specialized in eye care, but then became an own company. While the number of employees at Novartis has fluctuated, the number of patients the company reaches every year has been on the decline. As well as a decrease in the number of patients reached, the company has also decreased their advertising spending in recent years.

Novartis’ global positioning

Novartis is ranked among the top pharmaceutical companies globally. Recently the company was ranked sixth based on market capitalization. Other top companies included Johnson & Johnson and Roche. The company was also ranked fourth, after Pfizer, AbbVie, and J&J, based on prescription sales in 2022. Based on research and development spending as a share of revenue, Novartis was ranked sixth among top pharmaceutical companies.