Swiss Pharma Gets a Taste of Silicon Valley
- Narasimhan adds scrums to mix, elevates digital strategy head
- Drugmaker revamps R&D in sector that’s ‘crying out for change’
A logo sits on a glass door outside Novartis AG's headquarters in Basel.
Photographer: Gianluca Colla/Bloomberg
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Novartis AG’s new boss is bringing a Silicon Valley approach to Switzerland.
Vas Narasimhan, who took over last month, has adopted tech-industry tools in a bid to accelerate the production of blockbuster drugs and catch up with rivals that have pulled ahead in returns from research. The Basel-based company is embracing mobile apps, scrums, virtual reality and partners like QuantumBlack, a data-crunching firm that started out helping Formula One drivers gain an edge.