Novartis’ Sandoz generic drugs unit attracts interest  

Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said in a recent interview that its Sandoz generic drug business is reportedly attracting interest from possible buyers, according to a Reuters report.

Novartis raised the prospect of divesting Sandoz in October. 

[Read more: Novartis launches strategic review of its Sandoz generic drugs unit]

Investment group EQT and the Struengmann family, who are investors in BioNTech, are considering a joint offer for Sandoz, German media reported in November, according to the Reuters report.

"I have read that as well," Narasimhan said in an interview with German weekly magazine WirtschaftsWoche. "There have been various requests for more information. But no concrete offers." 

Novartis is expected to make a decision by the end of 2022.

[Read more: Sandoz launches generic Feraheme]

Sandoz had sales of $9.7 billion last year, about 20% of the group's total, Narasimhan said.

"The question we need to clarify by then is: Will Sandoz be more successful in the future within or outside the Novartis organization?" Narasimhan said. "What is clear is that we want to focus Novartis primarily on innovative medicines. We generate 80% of our sales and 80 to 90% of our profits with new medicines, for example for cancer, cardiovascular problems or genetic diseases. We are not interested in a very large deal. In the past few years, Novartis has not closed a transaction over ten billion dollars. Most of our acquisitions have been less than one billion."