Sandoz Group AG is a Swiss pharmaceutical company founded in 1886 and headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. After merging with Ciba-Geigy in 1996 to form Novartis, Sandoz operated as the generics division of Novartis. In October 2023, Sandoz was spun off and became an independent, publicly traded company listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the ticker SDZ. As of 2023, the company reported revenue of approximately $9.6 billion and had over 23,000 employees.
Sandoz is a global leader in the development and manufacturing of generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars. Its business is divided into two main units: Generics and Biosimilars. The Generics division produces a wide range of off-patent small molecule drugs, including complex formulations like injectables and respiratory products. The Biosimilars division focuses on developing and marketing biologic medicines that are highly similar to already approved biologics, a field Sandoz pioneered by launching the world's first biosimilar in 2006. The company's portfolio covers major therapeutic areas such as oncology, immunology, and cardiovascular diseases.
As a major manufacturer of generic and biosimilar drugs, Sandoz operates in a space that frequently involves patent litigation. The provided data shows Sandoz AG as a defendant in a patent infringement case, which is a typical posture for a generics company seeking to market a version of a branded drug. Companies like Sandoz often challenge existing patents or are sued by the original drug manufacturers for patent infringement when they file for regulatory approval of a generic or biosimilar product. The single tracked case against Sandoz was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, a common venue for pharmaceutical patent litigation.
The tracked case, Harmony Biosciences Management Inc et al. v. AET Pharma US Inc et al., filed in April 2026, involves Sandoz as a defendant. This aligns with its business model of challenging patents for branded drugs to bring more affordable generic versions to market. The company has publicly stated its focus on the "golden decade" of biosimilars, aiming to capitalize on biologics worth hundreds of billions of dollars that are expected to lose patent exclusivity by 2030. This strategy inherently involves navigating and, at times, litigating the complex patent landscape of the pharmaceutical industry.