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Patent dispute over the blockbuster drug “Entresto” unsettles Novartis shareholders
The Novartis Group is confident of being able to defend the non-competition clause of its second most important source of revenue. But there are good arguments that call for caution. The pressure on CEO Vasant Narasimhan is not diminishing.
Novartis boss Vasant Narasimhan has been waiting in vain for a resounding success since February 2018.
Image: Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone
Novartis shareholders were caught flat-footed on Friday. Less than an hour before the Six Swiss Exchange started the weekend, the pharmaceutical multinational’s shares fell by more than three percent. The great confusion among investors did not immediately diminish when Novartis named a patent dispute as the cause of the stock market reset in a first statement.