Word: uniting
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...trainee--but one with a rocket strapped to his back. A year after joining Sandoz, Vasella became product manager for a new drug named Sandostatin, approved to treat a rare pancreatic cancer. The head of Sandoz's U.S. pharmaceutical unit joked that Vasella could consider his job well done if he made Sandostatin a $5 million product, a pittance in the branded-drug business. Vasella realized that to make Sandostatin a commercial success, he had to find new uses for it. And he believed he could do that only by radically changing the game...
...sales in 1998 and 1999--slowed by a dearth of lucrative products--increased just 2% a year, while those of its main competitors were growing at about 10 times that rate. Looking for a unifying vision for his new company, Vasella championed "life sciences," the idea that biotechnology would unite nutritional, agricultural and pharmaceutical businesses. But the expected synergies did not materialize for Novartis, or for any other company that tried the life-sciences approach. Once he saw his vision wasn't working, Vasella was quick to abandon it. He divested Novartis of its agribusiness unit...
Novartis has since fashioned itself as a health-care company, but its core business, which generated 63% of group sales last year, is branded pharmaceuticals, led by brands such as Diovan and Sandimmun. Vasella leaves the other units--including generic drugs, animal health, Gerber, the eye-care unit CIBA Vision and over-the-counter medicines--in the hands of trusted lieutenants. Novartis announced earlier this year that it will divest the unit that makes foods such as Ovaltine. Some analysts say Novartis could pick up its growth if it got rid of more of its noncore businesses. But Vasella argues...
...episode lays bare the hard-line psychology of Turkey's military, a powerful political player. It does not brook public scrutiny. The hostage-taking incident, in which 200 PKK guerrillas stormed a heavily protected unit, killing 12 soldiers, is still shrouded in mystery. How did so many guerrillas manage to infiltrate a heavily guarded area? Why did it take so long to get reinforcements to the scene? How did the guerrillas and hostages leave? In their testimony, the men - all of whom were in different positions in a mountainous region near the Iraqi border - said they found themselves under fire...
...third quarter: An absolutely beautiful punt from Hull is handled poorly by the Harvard coverage unit. What could have been a downed ball inside the three ends up in the endzone after being mishandled by Derrick Barker...