Word: vasella
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Novartis quietly bought a 20% voting stake in Roche last year, startling the firm's managers and prompting speculation about an impending acquisition. But Vasella is biding his time now that he has, in the words of WestLB Panmure analyst Michael King, "parked the tanks on Roche's lawn." Vasella says when he heard that Swiss financier Martin Ebner would be selling his $2.8 billion stake in Roche, he realized the continuing consolidation of the industry might leave a major competitor in his backyard if he didn't act fast. "You don't want to wait to dance until...
...Vasella keeps a keen eye on his cherished drug business from an elegant second-floor office in the old Sandoz headquarters. On a counter behind his black leather chair are a pair of ancient Egyptian vases, a sword from the Han dynasty and a large blue-green bust of Buddha from the Tang dynasty. An avid collector of Oriental art, he recently bought a 13th century Tibetan statue of Buddha made of gilded bronze, which he keeps at his home in Zug. "I talk to him sometimes," says Vasella, "and I say, 'You know, I like you better than Jesus...
...work and at play, Vasella is a fierce competitor. "Doing it better than the others" is what excites him, he says. "Screw them, in a sense." He spends about a third of his workdays traveling around Europe, Asia and the Americas. The rest of the time, he is usually in back-to-back meetings with managers. "He challenges us," says John Manser, Novartis' treasurer, who meets with Vasella once a month to discuss the firm's investments. "He wants to know what sectors, what stocks--he goes to that level." Notes another top manager: "He's not a patient...
...coordinated R.-and-D. and marketing efforts focus on areas, such as cardiovascular diseases, in which treatments are judged to offer the greatest potential for profit. Senior vice president for business development Paul Sekhri, who helped pick these areas by going systematically through some 980 categories of ailments, says Vasella took a keen interest in how they were chosen. But while Vasella has taken aim at larger markets, he has ensured that more specialized products, such as ophthalmologic drugs, are not neglected. If there is enough of an unmet medical need, they too can be enormously profitable. David Epstein, head...
Such drugs can also have other applications. That's what guides Novartis' continuing research on Gleevec, a revolutionary drug initially directed against a rare leukemia. Responding to petitions from patients, Vasella pushed to complete clinical trials of the drug in just 32 months. It was recently approved to treat a second rare cancer that affects the stomach. Now Novartis is evaluating its effects in combination with other drugs on more common cancers, such as those of the prostate...