Novartis’ Jimenez stepping down, Narasimhan named new CEO

ZURICH: Novartis Chief Executive Joseph Jimenez will retire in 2018, with chief drug developer Vasant Narasimhan taking over as CEO starting in February, the Swiss drugmaker said on Monday.

Jimenez, 58, is stepping down following a decade at Novartis after having successfully secured US approval for a new gene therapy for leukaemia last week but before Novartis returned to sales growth, which the company has forecast will resume in 2018. “After 10 wonderful years in Switzerland, my family is ready to return to Silicon Valley and the United States,” said Jimenez, a Stanford University graduate.

A Novartis employee since 2005, Narasimhan has increased his public presence at Novartis since becoming global head of drug development and chief medical officer in 2016.

Just 41, he is among a new generation of youthful leaders at Novartis that include head researcher Jay Bradner at the Novartis Institutes For Biomedical Research who have sought to improve the process in which drugs move from research to actually becoming a commercial product. Novartis has been criticized for missing the first wave of promising cancer immunotherapy drugs and billions in sales. “Vas is deeply anchored in medical science, has significant experience in managing the interfaces between research and development and commercial units and has strong business acumen with a track record of outstanding achievements,” Chairman Joerg Reinhardt said.

Last week, Novartis won US Food and Drug Administration approval for the $475,000-per-patient Kymriah for children and young patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, the first so-called CAR-T therapy to win the regulator’s blessing. — Reuters