Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan: We can do better at R&D, but we need FDA’s help; J&J gets $2.1B bid for LifeScan
→ Why has medical innovation in cardiovascular diseases stagnated even as other therapeutic areas have thrived? Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan thinks a shift from broad-based development strategies to a more focused medicines approach is needed, and drug makers, regulators and payers all have a role to play.
In a column published in Fortune this week, Narasimhan argues that pharma companies need to be better at precision medicine in this field: categorizing patients, tracking biomarkers, and using more real world data. They can’t, however, do it alone; regulators must adopt their policies to recognize “scientifically robust subgroup data” for that to work. Lastly, he wrote, payers could make it easier for patients by implementing value-based reimbursement strategies. Given the case Novartis has been pitching for canakinumab, Narasimhan has a stake in pushing for all this: “There’s been much discussion on this topic, but the time to act is now.”
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