Novartis Has a Big Pile of Cash and Investors Are Demanding Action
- Lagging stock performance contrasts with Roche’s gains
- CEO could target Alnylam, Vertex or other biotech companies
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Switzerland’s two major pharmaceutical companies reside in the same sleepy city, Basel. Until recently, Novartis AG even owned a large chunk of Roche Holding AG, located within walking distance in a pair of gleaming white towers on the River Rhine.
The highest skyscrapers in Switzerland, Roche’s imposing headquarters stand in stark contrast to the low-slung buildings grouped around a park-like campus that Novartis calls home on the other bank of the river. Lately, the two drugmakers have also diverged in other ways.