Novartis sells Summit, NJ, site to S-P

Novartis Pharmaceutical Corp has agreed to sell its 88-acre site inSummit, New Jersey, USA, to Schering-Plough. Exact terms and price were not disclosed. The two companies expect to close the deal during the fourth quarter of this year, but Novartis will remain a tenant, transferring operations over time, with exit targeted for March 31, 2003.

Meantime, Novartis will proceed with plans to invest more than $100 million to expand facilities at its East Hanover, NJ, headquarters and consolidate all New Jersey operations there.

The centerpiece of the proposed expansion will be a new 500,000-square-foot facility for pharmaceutical research. That, in addition to a new office building, will accommodate the transfer of drug discovery operations from nearby Summit, with completion slated for March 2003.