Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said he was devastated by the pelacarsen trial failure, having worked on the candidate since 2015 with high hopes.
“I was devastated,” Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan told journalists in October about his initial reaction to the results. “I’ve been working on the candidate since 2015 and had high hopes that it could work.”
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Narasimhan recalled that being named Novartis CEO at around age 40 had seemed implausible to him at the time.
It didn’t seem plausible, at the time I was only 40.
Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said Q3 was the first quarter in which he saw AI genuinely improve the company's financial results, though the contribution was not quantified.
This is the first quarter where I truly see AI beginning to actually improve our financial results.Original (zh)
這是我真正看到AI開始確實改善我們財報的第一個季度。
Narasimhan said Novartis expects to return to dynamic growth in 2027 after a rough quarter of pipeline setbacks.
We do expect to get back to where we were, dynamic growth, in 2027,
Narasimhan explained that the $1.9 billion write-off on the Avidity deal stemmed from delayed timelines and additional clinical work needed for del-desiran.
primarily driven by the time line shifting out” and “the additional clinical work that needs to be completed,
Narasimhan said Novartis' priority brands kept performing well in Q3, led by Kisqali, Kesimpta, Scemblix, Leqvio and Rhapsido.
"Priority brands continued to perform well in the quarter," Narasimhan said, citing growth across Kisqali, Kesimpta, Scemblix, Leqvio and Rhapsido.