Relations have turned icy between the CEOs of Roche and Novartis as Switzerland's top two drug executives defend their very different strategies to making money in a tough healthcare market.
The climate became frostier last week when Roche's Severin Schwan announced a cost-saving program on the same day that Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez presented his diversification strategy at the group's long-awaited investor day in London.
It was noticeable that Jimenez was irritated about the timing of the Roche cost-cutting announcement," said Vontobel analyst Andrew Weiss, who attended the London meeting.
The differences go deeper than a matter of timing. Schwan, an Austrian who collected his doctorate in law from the University of Innsbruck, has been dismissive of the sort of approach taken by Novartis, based on expanding into broader product categories.
"A lot of people call it diversification," Schwan was quoted as saying in an interview with the Financial Times. "I call it giving up."
No comments:
Post a Comment