a16z Podcast

On Pharma Trends and Big Company Innovation

Jan 11, 2020

Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis and leader at the world's largest medicine producer, shares insights on the pharmaceutical landscape. He discusses the balancing act of innovating while managing costs and the importance of early market signals for both big companies and startups. The conversation also explores advancements in gene therapies, the role of digital medicine in behavioral health, and the cultural shifts needed in pharma to embrace innovative therapies like RNA-based treatments. Narasimhan emphasizes collaboration between biotech startups and large firms for future success.

59:17

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Episode guests

Vas Narasimhan

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Episode notes

Intro

4min

Evolving Pharmaceutical Innovation

10min

Exploring the Future of Digital Therapeutics in Behavioral Health

2min

Navigating the Build vs. Buy Dilemma in Gene Therapy Development

4min

Navigating Innovation in Pharma: Insights from Inside the Industry

2min

Innovative Therapies: The Future of Medicine

12min

Navigating Knowledge and Innovation in Pharma

25min

How does the world’s largest producer of medicines in terms of volume balance the science and the business of innovation? How does an enterprise at such vast scale make decisions about what to build vs. buy, especially given the fast pace of science today? How does it balance attitudes between “not invented here” and “not invented yet”?

Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, sat down with a16z bio general partners Jorge Conde and Vijay Pande, and editor in chief Sonal Chokshi, during the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference around this time last year, to discuss the latest trends in therapeutics; go to market and why both big companies and bio startups need to get market value signals (not just approvals!) from payers earlier in the process; clinical trials, talent, leadership, and more in this rerun of the a16z Podcast.

image: Global Panorama/ Flickr

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