The trusted Sandoz brand returns

Sandoz, which merged with Ciba-Geigy in 1996 to form Novartis, returns to the Philippines as a world-class generics brand.

The Swiss-based pharmaceutical company decided to consolidate its generics operations, known as Novartis Generics, under the Sandoz brand.

The Sandoz brand of generics was launched last Aug. 12 at the NBC Tent in Fort Bonifacio.

"For us, it is indeed great to welcome the return of Sandoz, a Novartis company. For you, your patients and all the customers that we serve, we assure you that the return of Sandoz will be equally great," said Roswald Quizon, country manager of Sandoz in the Philippines.

Sandoz, a global provider of off-patent and patent-free pharmaceuticals, operates in 120 countries and has 13,000 employees.

"From today, we would like to inform you all that here in the Philippines, all Biochemie products like the antituberculosis, antibiotics and the antidiabetic products will be relabeled gradually to adopt the new global Sandoz design," Quizon said.

The corporate brand launch coincides with the introduction of a new Sandoz brand of co-amoxiclav made available at half the price of the leading brand.