Ciba Vision

In 1873, one Alexander Clavel sold his dye factory owner to a company called Bindschedler and Busch. In 1884 the company became a joint-stock company called "Gesellschaft für Chemische Industrie Basel" (Company for Chemical Industry Basel). From this the acronym CIBA was announced as the company name in 1945.

Ciba merged with Geigy in 1970 to form Ciba-Geigy. Ciba Vision was established in 1980 as a diversification move by Ciba-Geigy. In 1996 Ciba-Geigy formed with a pharmaceutical company called Sandoz to form Novartis. In 2009 Novartis was the sixth largest multinational pharmaceutical in the world in terms of sales.

Ciba Vision sold more than 1.9 billion contact lenses in 2009.