“WE NEED SHORT-TERM LAUNCHES TO KEEP DRIVING GROWTH”
What is the current focus at Novartis?
Right now, the focus is about 80 per cent innovative medicines and 20 per cent generics. It is a good mix of long-term and short-term. We have 15 launches coming up in innovative medicines. That, I think, is the highest in the industry. We got six new drug approvals last year. We have 165 projects in drug development, which will hopefully be the next wave of innovation at Novartis. It’s the right balance.
Some of this technology will take longer to evolve. Some of them are near-term RNA interference, and to some extent cell therapy and gene therapy. But in the longer term, we will need these technologies to mature. So this will be a 5-10-year journey. We try to balance as we need short-term launches to
