The group comprises the divisions BYK (coating additives and instruments), Eckart (metal effect pigments and metallic printing inks), Elantas (insulation materials for the electrical and electronics industries) and Actega (coatings and sealant compounds for the packaging industry).

On 19 December 2006, the majority of shareholders voted to approve the sale of the pharmaceuticals division to the Danish company Nycomed.

With the sale of the pharmaceuticals division, headquartered in Konstanz, Germany, Altana lost a major pillar of its business.

The patent for pantoprazole, a stomach ulcer and reflux treatment drug, the main revenue-generator for the former pharmaceuticals division, expired in 2009/2010.

While the Altana Management Board justified the divestiture of the pharmaceutical business with delays in the approval of new products, increased research and development costs as well as strict regulatory requirements in the US and Europe, shareholder activists asserted that the management board had invested too little in the pharmaceutical business in the preceding years and had failed to develop successor products in time to compensate for the revenue losses to be expected due to the expiry of the pantaprazole patent at the end of the decade.

Since the sale of the pharmaceutical business to Nycomed, Altana has been operating exclusively in the specialty chemicals segment.