The financial turmoil roiling the globe has not had a negative impact on the drugmaker, according to ceo Dan Vasella. "Until now, we have seen no slowdown in demand," he told the Swiss newspaperTages-Anzeiger. "And we have not speculated and consciously did not, as others did, invest heavily in derivatives. That means we earned less, but now also lost nothing."
Perhaps something was lost in the translation. Novartis has actually insisted for months that things have been slowing. Late last year, the drugmaker vowed to eliminate 2,500 jobs in order to save $1.6 billion by 2010 in response to the usual malaise - pipeline issues, patent expirations and assorted safety and regulatory setbacks (back story). The lastest manifestation - just last month, 550 sales jobs were targeted (look here).
2 Comments
What planet is Dan Vassella living on? He does not read his own company's pronouncements on the sales slowdown .He seems to be out of touch with the falling level of prescriptions in the vital US market where Novartis makes most of its profits.Added to which is the fact that the patent loss looming for Diovan will have a major negative effect on Novartis. Despite all evidence that pharma companies must move rapidly away from the obsolete blockbuster business model and the margin eating titanic-like infrastructure of the fully intgrated phamaceutcl company there is no sign a the necessary tranformation at Novartis. Even more poignant is the fact that the highest paid executive of a public company in Europe cannot see the problems facing ordinary mortals.
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