Re­shap­ing No­var­tis in­to a more ag­gres­sive phar­ma gi­ant, Vas Narasimhan bags a $13B con­sumer sale ahead of bolt-on deals

Vas Narasimhan has be­gun to re­shape the gi­ant No­var­tis in­to the drugs and da­ta sci­ences be­he­moth he has in mind, strik­ing a deal to sell the com­pa­ny’s share in a con­sumer health­care di­vi­sion to his part­ners at GSK for $13 bil­lion while open­ly sig­nal­ing his in­ter­est in wheel­ing and deal­ing ahead with some bolt-on buy­outs.

While just a small part of the No­var­tis op­er­a­tions fo­cused on tooth­paste and pain pills, the deal gives GSK’s Em­ma Walm­s­ley full con­trol of the con­sumer JV, fol­low­ing up on an in­ter­est that dis­turbed in­vestors when she was dick­er­ing for Pfiz­er’s con­sumer di­vi­sion a few days ago. Walm­s­ley al­so ar­rived at the helm of GSK re­cent­ly with an in­ter­est in re­shap­ing the com­pa­ny, and told in­vestors this morn­ing that with con­sumer squared away, she can con­cen­trate more on phar­ma R&D as well.

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