FORT WORTH, Texas—Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) is holding steady on its commitment to continue an ongoing review of growth trends at its Alcon eyecare unit before making a decision on a potential sale or spinoff of the business in the first half of 2019, according to a news report this week. The company’s new chief executive officer, Vasant Narasimhan, reiterated the company’s previously announced plans for Alcon in an interview with CNBC at the China Development Forum. Joe Jimenez, who had been chief executive of the pharmaceutical company until earlier this year, had said a spinoff of Alcon was not likely to occur before 2019 as the company worked to improve sales and core operating income, as VMAIL reported. 

"With Alcon ... we look forward to taking a potential action, moving toward a potential decision in the first half of 2019. And that's still the timeline that we will maintain and no change on that,” Narasimhan told CNBC. He added, according to the CNBC report, “We want to continue to see both sales growth and profitability improve. But we still think it would be the right timeline to look toward that first half of '19 for any potential action on Alcon.”