Table II: Top 50 pharmaceutical companies (Rankings 41–50)

Also, in 2007, Novartis divested its Gerber baby food business to Nestlé (Vevey, Switzerland) for $5.5 billion, the final step in a divestment program to focus the group's strategy on healthcare and pharmaceuticals. Novartis had earlier sold its medical nutrition business to Nestlé for $2.5 billion. Novartis also sold its rights and transferred a related manufacturing facility for "Betaseron" (interferon beta-1b) to Bayer Schering Pharma (Berlin) for $200 million and received rights to manufacture its own version of Betaseron beginning in 2009.

Novartis has two major biologics expansions underway. The company is investing $700 million in a new cell-culture production facility in Singapore to support clinical and commercial production of biopharmaceuticals, primarily antibodies. The proposed facility is expected to be operational in 2012 and represents Novartis's single largest investment in manufacturing capacity in the company's history. Also, in 2007, Novartis began work on its $600-million cell-culture manufacturing site in Holly Springs, North Carolina. In addition, the company formed a new biologics unit.

In April 2007, NBIR opened a 5000-m² R&D center in Shanghai, and plans to build a larger 40,000-m² R&D facility there that will house roughly 400 R&D scientists. An initial investment of $100 million was budgeted for the two facilities.

In June 2008, Novartis agreed to buy Protez Pharmaceuticals (Malvern, PA) for $100 million up-front and as much as an additional $300 million. With the acquisition, Novartis gains the North American and European rights to PZ-601, a carbapenem antibiotic in clinical development. In April 2008, Novartis agreed to acquire a majority stake in the eye-care company Alcon (Hunenburg, Switzerland) under a two-step purchase plan. The first step involves Novartis buying a 25% stake in Alcon for $11 billion, which is expected to be completed in the second half of 2008. The second step provides rights for Novartis to acquire from Nestlé, Alcon's parent company, the remaining 52% held by Nestlé between January 2010 and July 2011 for as much as $28 billion. In July 2007, Novartis formed a strategic alliance with Intercell (Vienna), a vaccines developer, and increased its stake in the company to 16.2%.