Office profile
Novartis Headquarters & offices · Basel, Switzerland
Novartis · Basel, Switzerland
A headquarters laid out like a small city, with streets, squares and arcades and buildings by Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, SANAA and Herzog & de Meuron, open to the public on weekdays.
The Campus, the benefits and 268 years of history across three Basel neighbourhoods, from Geigy, Ciba and Sandoz to Novartis — then the business. Every number from Novartis' own filings, websites and the architects.
- 18 weeksminimum paid parental leave in Switzerland, for every parent
- 7:00–19:00the Campus is open to the public on weekdays (since 2022)
- 75,267full-time equivalent employees worldwide (end of 2025)
- ≈ 8,000people work on the Basel Campus
Sources: campus.novartis.com (Inside the Campus, An open Campus) · novartis.com Switzerland “Unsere Mitarbeitenden” · Form 20-F 2025
Companies / Switzerland / Pharmaceuticals / Novartis
THE HEADQUARTERS BUILDING · FORUM 3 · 2005
A glass veil, a walnut staircase and a tropical garden indoors
Forum 3, the headquarters building on the Campus's main square, was the first of the new buildings to be completed. Its façade is a semi-transparent veil of layered coloured glass panes. The ground floor, with foyer, café, restaurant and a large conference room, opens completely to a covered space under the projecting upper floors. Upstairs are open-plan offices with secluded zones, joined by a curved dark-walnut staircase, and the west wing holds an indoor garden of tropical trees reaching up to the ceiling.
- Five storeys
- Design: Diener & Diener with artist Helmut Federle and architect Gerold Wiederin
- Indoor garden of tropical trees
- Open-plan offices with secluded zones
- Café and restaurant on the ground floor
- First new building of the Campus
Forum 3, the headquarters building
Diener & Diener's Forum 3 (2002–2005) on the main square was the first new building on the Campus; its façade is a veil of layered coloured glass.
Asklepios 8 on the Rhine (Herzog & de Meuron)
Herzog & de Meuron's Asklepios 8 is an office building on the Campus by the Rhine, with tall open floors, a bar and lounges looking over the river.
Along Fabrikstrasse: Gehry, SANAA, Ando and Lampugnani
Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani's masterplan turned the old Sandoz works into streets lined with buildings by well-known architects.
Facts: Diener & Diener project page “Novartis Campus Forum 3, Basel, 2002–2005”. Photos are added later with credit to the architect or photographer; we remove any photo on request.
The Novartis Campus in Basel
| Building | Address |
|---|---|
| Forum 3 (headquarters building, Diener & Diener) | Forum 3, Novartis Campus, CH-4056 Basel |
| Forum 1 (Novartis International AG) | Forum 1, Novartis Campus, CH-4056 Basel |
| Novartis AG, registered office | Lichtstrasse 35, CH-4056 Basel |
| Campus main address | Fabrikstrasse 2, 4056 Basel |
| Fabrikstrasse 4 (SANAA) | Fabrikstrasse 4, Novartis Campus, 4056 Basel |
| Fabrikstrasse 12 (Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani) | Fabrikstrasse 12, Novartis Campus, 4056 Basel |
| Fabrikstrasse 28 (Tadao Ando) | Fabrikstrasse 28, Novartis Campus, 4056 Basel |
| Asklepios 8 (Herzog & de Meuron, 2015) | Asklepios 8, Novartis Campus, 4056 Basel |
| Novartis Pavillon (open to the public) | St. Johanns-Hafen-Weg 5, 4056 Basel |
Source: Form 20-F 2025 cover · novartis.com Locations · campus.novartis.com “Getting Here” · Novartis media library (building captions) · Diener & Diener and Herzog & de Meuron project pages · See them on the map ↓
Source: Form 20-F 2025 (site size) · Novartis Live Magazine “Reinventing St. Johann” (masterplan rules, designers, art) · campus.novartis.com (Inside the Campus, Novartis Pavillon, Pavillon anniversary). Herzog & de Meuron's project page gives the masterplan height as 23.5 m.
Office tour videos
Benefits (Switzerland and worldwide)
At least 18 weeks of paid parental leave for women and men, same-sex couples and adoptive parents.
Every Novartis employee in the world gets at least 14 weeks of paid parental leave after a birth or adoption, from the first day of employment.
Employees can buy Novartis shares through payroll deductions at a 15% discount (plan started in 2022).
Under the Swiss ESOP, employees can take their annual incentive in shares and get one matching share for every two held for three years.
Since July 15, 2020 office-based employees choose how, where and when they work; managers are informed rather than asked. In Switzerland: flexitime, hybrid work, part-time and job sharing.
Childcare and support for employees caring for close relatives, plus well-being programmes and on-site health services.
An automatic 2% company contribution to the 401(k) and a dollar-for-dollar match up to 4%, plus an annual retirement contribution of 3% to 10% depending on age.
Adoption reimbursement up to $5,000 per adoption, backup child care, and health cover that includes egg freezing.
Source: novartis.com Switzerland “Unsere Mitarbeitenden” · novartis.com “Parental leave” · Form 20-F 2025 (Note on equity-based participation plans) · novartis.com “Choice with Responsibility” (Jul 29, 2020) · novartis.com/us-en Employee benefits
Why people stay: what Novartis itself says
Novartis' stated values for hiring, development and performance reviews, alongside integrity.
Employee-run communities with shared interests and experiences, supported by the company in Switzerland.
An internal tool to find projects, mentors and new roles — even in another country.
Novartis met its Equal Pay International Coalition pledge in 2023 and renewed it with three commitments to 2027.
People of more than 100 nationalities work for Novartis in Switzerland.
Recognition programmes let employees recognise and reward each other.
Source: novartis.com Switzerland “Unsere Mitarbeitenden” · novartis.com/careers “Why Novartis”
Who works here
full-time equivalent employees (Dec 31, 2025)
of them in Europe, the largest region
employees in Switzerland
of management roles held by women
field force employees
Source: Form 20-F 2025 (employees by activity and region, field force) · novartis.com Switzerland “Unsere Mitarbeitenden” (Switzerland headcount, women in management by the global ESG definition)
Office history: three Basel neighbourhoods, one Campus
- 1758 Geigy, a trading house in Basel
Johann Rudolf Geigy-Gemuseus founded the trading company J.R. Geigy in Basel to deal in “materials, chemicals, dyes and drugs of all kinds”. Geigy was later headquartered in Basel's Rosental area.
Source: novartis.com Company history · Novartis Live Magazine “Milestones of medicine” (2021)
No free-to-use photo found yet.Have one? We’d love to add it. - 1859–64 Ciba's roots: a silk dyer turns to synthetic dyes
Alexander Clavel began producing the synthetic dye fuchsine in his silk-dyeing factory in Basel in 1859, and in 1864 he opened the first dye factory in Klybeck — the site that became Ciba's.
Source: novartis.com Company history · Novartis Live Magazine “The rise and fall of dye chemistry at Klybeck”
The Ciba works in Basel from the air, 1961 · Werner Friedli / CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons - 1886 Kern & Sandoz on the St. Johann site
Alfred Kern and Edouard Sandoz completed their first factory in spring 1886 on an approximately 11,000 m² lot in the northwest of Basel: an office with a laboratory, three sawtooth-roofed production halls and a boiler house. Ten years later the grounds covered more than 63,000 m². Today's Novartis Campus stands on the same spot.
Source: Novartis Live Magazine “A short history of the St-Johann Works” (2013)
The Sandoz works in St. Johann, Basel, 1961 · Werner Friedli / CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons - 1939 An administration building that sets the Campus height
Sandoz completed a triangular administration building by Wilhelm Brodtbeck and Fritz Bohny, later called Building 200 and extended after World War II. Renamed Forum 1, it was renovated by 2002, and its height became the maximum cornice height for the whole Campus.
Source: Novartis Live Magazine “A short history of the St-Johann Works” and “Reinventing St. Johann”
No free-to-use photo found yet.Have one? We’d love to add it. - 1970 Ciba and Geigy merge
Ciba and Geigy merged on October 20, 1970 — the “Basel marriage”. Ciba-Geigy's research later moved from Geigy's former headquarters site in Rosental to Klybeck (1989).
Source: Novartis Live Magazine “Foresight and strength” and “Milestones of medicine”
A former Ciba-Geigy dye production hall, Klybeck, 2020 · Mfbruellmann / CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons - 1996 Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz become Novartis
The merger was announced on March 7, 1996. In February 1997 the old logo was changed at the Novartis St. Johann site in Basel, the former Sandoz works.
Source: novartis.com Company history · Novartis Live Magazine “Foresight and strength”
Building WSJ-210 on the St. Johann site, 2006 · --Andrew Hecht / CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons - Early 2000s A “Campus of Knowledge” replaces the factory
Novartis decided to reimagine the entire St. Johann site and commissioned Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani to plan it as an urban quarter of streets, squares, parks and arcades along the old Fabrikstrasse — the idea of then-CEO Daniel Vasella.
Source: Novartis Live Magazine “Reinventing St. Johann” and “Hothouses of knowledge”
The Campus under construction, 2012 · Grubyak / CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons - 2005 Forum 3, the first new building
Diener & Diener's Forum 3 (2002–2005) on the main square became the headquarters building and the first of the new Campus buildings to be completed. Buildings by Gehry, Ando, SANAA, Chipperfield and Herzog & de Meuron followed.
Source: Diener & Diener project page · Novartis Live Magazine “Reinventing St. Johann”
Forum 3, 2009 · Andreas Schwarzkopf / CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons - 2022 The Campus opens to everyone
The Novartis Pavillon opened on April 30, 2022, and since October 2022 the Campus has been open to the public on weekdays from 7:00 to 19:00. It is the registered seat of Novartis AG at Lichtstrasse 35.
Source: campus.novartis.com (An open Campus, Pavillon anniversary) · Form 20-F 2025
Novartis Pavillon, 2022 · MBxd1 / CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Map: how the headquarters moved
Novartis has never left Basel. Its three roots grew in three neighbourhoods on either side of the Rhine — Klybeck, Rosental and St. Johann — and the company now sits on the old Sandoz site in St. Johann, a short walk from the French and German borders.
- 1 · 1864Klybeck, Basel — Alexander Clavel's first dye factory in Klybeck; later Ciba's main site
- 2 · 1886St. Johann, Basel — Kern & Sandoz builds its first factory on the St. Johann site
- 3 · 1970Rosental, Basel — Geigy's headquarters area when it merged with Ciba
- 4 · 2005 – todayNovartis Campus, Basel — Forum 3 and the Campus on the St. Johann site; registered office Lichtstrasse 35
Places: Novartis Live Magazine (St-Johann Works, Klybeck, Milestones of medicine) · Form 20-F 2025 · campus.novartis.com. Klybeck and Rosental are neighbourhood locations, not exact addresses.
What Novartis does
Novartis began as three Basel dye and chemicals companies. After spinning off Alcon in 2019 and Sandoz in 2023, it describes itself as “an innovative medicines company”, focused on prescription medicines in cardiovascular, immunology, neuroscience and oncology.
One business: innovative medicines. Biggest brands in 2025: Entresto ($7.7B), Cosentyx ($6.7B), Kisqali ($4.8B) and Kesimpta ($4.4B).
Where the money came from · Net sales by region, 2025
Source: Form 20-F 2025, Item 4.B (business overview) and Item 5 (net sales by region, brand sales)
Source: Form 20-F 2025 (net sales from continuing operations, net income) · novartis.com CEO biography (patients reached) · per-employee figure calculated by eciffo
Growth: revenue vs. people
$49.1B → $54.5B
121,597 → 75,267
Fiscal years end December 31. Net sales to third parties from continuing operations and year-end full-time equivalent employees (2018–2022 rounded as stated) as reported in each year's Form 20-F. Alcon was spun off in 2019 and Sandoz in 2023, so 2019 and 2023 onward exclude those businesses. Multiples calculated by eciffo.
Chief executives
CEO since February 1, 2018, previously Global Head of Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer.
Joined Novartis in 2007 and led Consumer Health and then Pharmaceuticals before becoming CEO in 2010.
CEO whose idea, at the turn of the millennium, of a campus that “focuses on the people” led to the Novartis Campus.
Novartis was formed in 1996 from Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz. Founders of the predecessors: Johann Rudolf Geigy-Gemuseus (Geigy, 1758), Alexander Clavel (Ciba's roots, 1859), Alfred Kern and Edouard Sandoz (Sandoz, 1886).
Source: novartis.com executive committee (Vasant Narasimhan) · Novartis media release on Joseph Jimenez's retirement (2017) · Novartis Annual Report 2010 · Novartis Live Magazine “Hothouses of knowledge” · novartis.com Company history
Novartis: questions people ask
Where is Novartis' headquarters?
On the Novartis Campus in Basel, Switzerland, in the St. Johann district near the French and German borders. The registered office of Novartis AG is Lichtstrasse 35, CH-4056 Basel; the Campus address is Fabrikstrasse 2.
Source: Form 20-F 2025 · campus.novartis.com “Getting Here”
Can you visit the Novartis Campus?
Yes. Since October 2022 the Campus has been open to the public Monday to Friday, 7:00–19:00, including its green spaces, shops, cafés and restaurants; offices and labs stay closed. Guided tours can be booked, and the Novartis Pavillon with the “Wonders of Medicine” exhibition is open Tuesday to Sunday.
Source: campus.novartis.com (An open Campus, Inside the Campus, Novartis Pavillon)
Who designed the Novartis Campus?
Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani drew the masterplan. Buildings are by architects including Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, David Chipperfield, Herzog & de Meuron, SANAA and Diener & Diener, whose Forum 3 is the headquarters building. Peter Walker designed the landscape.
Source: Novartis Live Magazine “Reinventing St. Johann” · Diener & Diener project page
How big is the Novartis Campus?
The St. Johann site in Basel covers 481,448 m² (about 5.18 million sq ft) and is the global headquarters and a research and development site. About 8,000 people work there.
Source: Form 20-F 2025 · campus.novartis.com
How many people work at Novartis?
75,267 full-time equivalent employees at the end of 2025, of whom 20,015 work in research and development. About 10,000 people work for Novartis in Switzerland.
Source: Form 20-F 2025 · novartis.com Switzerland
How long is parental leave at Novartis?
At least 14 weeks of paid leave for every new parent worldwide, from the first day of employment, regardless of gender. In Switzerland the minimum is 18 weeks, including same-sex couples and adoptive parents.
Source: novartis.com Parental leave · novartis.com Switzerland
Does Novartis allow remote or hybrid work?
Yes. Under “Choice with Responsibility”, in place since July 15, 2020, office-based employees choose how, where and when they work within their country, informing rather than asking their manager. In Switzerland Novartis offers flexitime, hybrid models, part-time and job sharing.
Source: novartis.com “Choice with Responsibility” (2020) · novartis.com Switzerland
Can Novartis employees buy company shares?
Yes. The Employee Share Purchase Plan lets employees buy Novartis shares through payroll at a 15% discount, and in Switzerland the ESOP gives one matching share for every two shares held for three years.
Source: Form 20-F 2025
When was Novartis founded?
In 1996, through the merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz, announced on March 7, 1996. Its roots go back to Geigy (1758), Ciba (1859) and Sandoz (1886), all in Basel.
Source: novartis.com Company history · Novartis Live Magazine
Who is the CEO of Novartis?
Vasant (Vas) Narasimhan, CEO since February 1, 2018. He succeeded Joseph Jimenez, who had led the company since 2010.
Source: novartis.com executive committee · Novartis media release (2017)
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