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Biotech / Medical : Novartis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Chuck. Edwards who wrote (147)	1/16/1998 10:53:00 PM
From: Chuck. Edwards	Respond to of 296

Tom, here is the story from Reuters: Tuesday January 13, 7:11 am Eastern Time BASLE, Switzerland, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Swiss pharmaceuticals group Novartis AG's (OTC BB:NVTSY - news; NOVZn.S) synergy programme begun in 1996 will ultimately result in the shutdown, sale or outsourcing of 35 (corrected) of its 62 pharmaceutical production facilities, Novartis said, confirming reports in the Basler Zeitung on Tuesday. Novartis, which was formed in 1996 through the merger of Swiss rivals Ciba-Geigy AG and Sandoz AG (SANZ.S), is currently in the advanced stages of a rationalisation programmed aimed at achieving costs reductions amounting to some two billion Swiss francs ($1.4 billion). The group has said it is on track with its plan to achieve 60 percent of the savings in the first year of the merger, 80 percent by the end of 1998 and the rest in 1999. A spokesman said that the hardest-hit regions will be North America, where the number of pharmaceuticals plants is being reduced to two from eight, the Asia/Pacific region, where the number of plants will drop to six from 19 and Latin America, which will lose eight plants, leaving it with three. The one existing chemical plant would be closed in North America and two in the Asia/Pacific region would also be lost. ($ equals 1.477 Swiss Francs)

To: Chuck. Edwards who wrote (147)	1/18/1998 11:10:00 PM
From: Tom Wilkes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 296

Thanks Chuck, Yes, it would be good if you could post it. And I did notice that it bounced back big . . . and I laughed at my own comments to you. I carefully chose Novartis for the long haul, and, since the timing seemed right in terms of PE, other technicals, and Europe, I bought a fair-sized chunk. Do you foresee long-term success, as I do, or are we gambling too much on "life science" potentialities, as opposed to making a pure pharmaceutical play with Merck or Pfizer, etc.? Time will tell, of course. Tom