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Novartis (NYSE:NVS) shareholders have voted for a 100% spinout of the company’s generic drug and biosimilars unit Sandoz, with shares of the new company to be listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange.
Novartis said in a statement Friday that its shareholders will receive one Sandoz share for every five Novartis shares or one Sandoz ADR for every 5 Novartis ADRs as a dividend-in-kind distribution.
Sandoz shares will be listed on the Swiss exchange and available in the US through an ADR program. ADRs will not be listed on any US exchange, however. The spin out is expected to occur on or around Oct. 4.
Sandoz has been aggressively working on biosimilars of well-known biologic products. The unit reportedly has 25 biosimilar products in development, with plans to launch five major biosimilars over the next few years.
This past week, Sandoz announced plans to commercialize a biosimilar of Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ) blockbuster drug Stelara with Samsung Bioepis. Last month, it announced it had received FDA clearance for a biosimilar of Biogen’s (BIIB) blockbuster MS drug Tysabri.
According to Reuters, Sandoz is the world’s second largest producer of biosimilars next to Pfizer (PFE).