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神と呼ばれる男

提灯記事。

Dan.Vの新しい試みは正しい思う。
※新しい試み:(Business Weekより抜粋) "It's the tyranny of quarterly earnings," he says, a trace of an accent revealing his Swiss German upbringing. Vasella believes that focusing Novartis' research on smaller, narrowly defined groups of patients will lead to more targeted and effective therapies with fewer side effects. Regulators will therefore be inclined to approve them, and reimbursement will be less troublesome. (Business Week)
解説:これまでの新薬開発は、まず魅力的な疾患領域(例えば生活習慣病見たいに、患者数が多くて、しかも可処分所得の多い人たち)をターゲットして、うまくいきそうな薬を開発するというモデルだった。"新しい試み”としては、分子標的など、確実なCause&Effectのある経路("スイッチ”みたいなかんじ)を発見して、それを製品化してから、“これってどんな疾患に効くんだろう?”と段階的に使用用途(いわゆる"適応”)を広げていく。


直近までの業界のやり方とは大きく異なる点ではInnovativeに映るが、もともと薬学にある方法論ですよね。原点回帰。

彼は明晰な頭脳と先見の明でこのビジネスモデルをデザインした、というより、これまでの失敗(Prexige, Zelnorm…)と成功(Glivec)と行き詰まり(Diovan)を受けて学び、、かつ時を同じくしてInnovationが流行っている結果このたびの"独自路線”をとるにいたったと考えるのがMake senseすると思います。
Engineerが新しいCreationをして、最初は用途が少ないんだけど、だんだん有効な活用方法が発見されてヒットする、という昨今のITイノベーションと似たモデルですな。あっぱれ。


同じ記事のCommentsがおもしろい。

ちょっと抜粋:
Is it innovative to spend $26,000 on wallpaper for one's office and lay off employees after Gleevec posted $3.7 billion? Sorry, but I find D. Vasella offensive, not "innovative". Anyone who has worked for Novartis at a level lower than a Director can tell you what innovative is - we live it everyday just to be able to do our jobs. Kerry Capell, I challenge you to survey the number of lower level employees who have high blood pressure and other health related issues at Novartis. I think you'd have a real story there!

Gleevec is the exception (and the description of the translocation must be close to 30 years old, so not sure how to gauge this innovation). Look at the track record, Diovan 2nd in class, Afinitor- 2nd in class, Prexige, Galvus, Zelnorm, all 2nd but with safety issues preventing launch. Lotrel- a premium priced branded combination of generics. Ilaris targets a patient population already served by a drug with a related mechanism- Anakinra. I guess this is what is really implied when Vasella says he is only betting on "right disease mechanisms", those pioneered at other companies. Spinning being a follower into an innovator is brilliant. Despite the MD credential, DV is still a marketer, using his family history t make a compelling story for himself. Let's overlook marrying right.

Vasella's career has been extraordinary. To go from being a practicing physician, without any record of original research work, to a pharmaceutical marketing job because of a perception that it would be easier to rapidly obtain a leadership role in the latter is amazingly presumptuous - that doesn't happen in pharma. Oh, but Dan had a patron - his wifes uncle was the Chairman - so he obviously knew that this was going to happen. Then Ciba and Sandoz merged - the drug pipeline came from Ciba and the management came from Sandoz - interesting! The recent success of Novartis has been in oncology - of which Dan knows essentially nothing. Dan's clinical practice was gastroenterology and internal medicine. His expertise in managing drug development can be assessed by the recent Novartis drugs in these areas - Prexige (arthritis), Zelnorm (irritable bowel syndrome) and Galvus (diabetes) - amazingly all three were management debacles!!! To mention Dan in the same breath as Jobs, Grove and Walton is ridiculous and shows that this article did not seek input from anyone who understands the realities of drug development.


会長の好みで北方領土なみの北緯のBaselに鯉池を設けたり、中国の古美術をそろえたり、屋内に松を持ってきたり、そこにライン川から水をひいて川を造ろうとしてでもうまくいかないから枯山水を造ったり…  同時に多くの社員を解雇しながら…
Jim CollinsのVisionaryリーダー像にかぶれた私としてはNVSのリーダーシップはいささか不安をおぼえます(10年20年のスパンで考えればとても優良な会社とは思うけれど)。。。

by nina_anin | 2009-06-23 00:08 | 製薬業界
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Duke大学のFuqua School of Business留学日記です


by nina_anin
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