Serving up care in MS

When Novartis AG sold its Betaseron manufacturing plant to Bayer Schering Pharma AG for $110 million in 2007, Novartis could have sought to co-promote the multiple sclerosis drug. Instead, Novartis chose to get approval of its own branded version of the exact same interferon beta-1b manufactured by Bayer Schering in the exact same plant.

Novartis expects having its own brand will help differentiate its MS franchise - which could soon include the novel therapeutic fingolimod - based in part on services to physicians and patients that are unlike anything its competitors are yet offering...