Novartis spinoff of Alcon expected April 9

Novartis announced that its spinoff of Alcon is expected to be completed April 9.

Certain conditions necessary for the 100% spinoff to occur have been met, Novartis announced in a press release. The transaction will be completed through a distribution of a dividend in kind to Novartis shareholders, of one Alcon share for every five Novartis shares.

Authorization has been received for the listing of shares of Alcon on the SIX Swiss Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange as ALC.

Primary Care Optometry News spoke with Sergio Duplan, North America Region president, Alcon, about the spinoff and the future of Alcon.

PCON: Please comment on how the spinoff will affect Alcon and its eye care products and services.

Duplan: As a standalone company, we’ll have a more nimble and agile culture – one focused solely on our mission of helping people see better. This will happen through rapid, iterative innovation and operational flexibility, while leveraging our strong customer relationships, internal expertise, and global scale and reach. Alcon will deliver best-in-class solutions to our customers and patients, expand markets and adjacencies while introducing new business models. We believe this will enable Alcon to achieve sustainable growth and create long-term shareholder value.

PCON: Do you anticipate changes in programs/product research as a result of the spinoff?

Duplan: Going forward we will continue to focus on the significant near-term opportunities with our organic growth drivers as well as on our longer-term opportunities with our innovative launches, market expansion and new business models. Our vision is to lead the world in eye care device innovation, and our mission is to help people see better. In doing so, we apply world-leading expertise to innovate products, build markets and deliver new solutions in eye care.

We will continue to operate in sizeable markets with substantial unmet medical and consumer needs. Eighty percent of visual impairment is preventable or curable, and we want to play a large role in helping these patients.

We are currently focused in the areas of:

--refractive error (153 million uncorrected);

--presbyopia (1.7 billion sufferers);

--dry eye (352 million sufferers);

--cataracts (20 million blinded)

--retinal disease (93 million have diabetic retinopathy); and

--glaucoma (over 67 million suffer from glaucoma). – by Nancy Hemphill, ELS, FAAO

Disclosure: Duplan is employed by Alcon.