Roche...Novartis: Vidas paralelas...?

Plutarco, historiador y ensayista griego, es conocido por su obra, VIDAS PARALELAS...

Estas dos compañías, si hubiera sobrevivido, serían una buena fuente de inspiración...

Según artículo publicado en Financial Times:

Pharmaceuticals: Same end, entirely different means

By Andrew Jack 30/09/09

Their headquarters stand less than two kilometres apart, on opposite sides of the river Rhine in the city of Basel in Switzerland.

Pero hasta ahí todo "paralelismo" ("imbricaciones" de capital aparte).

En la vision de sus líderes (Daniel Vasella/Novartis y Severin Schwan/Roche) más afloran divergencias que...encuentros.


"While Severin Schwan, who took charge of Roche last year, represents a new generation of recently-appointed pharmaceutical bosses drawn increasingly from law (in his case), finance and marketing, Novartis chief executive, Daniel Vasella, who was appointed more than a decade ago, is one of the few doctors still in charge.
The two men represent many of the extremes of the divergence in approaches of drug companies."


Y, mientras Roche tiene una "orientación" hacia los productos hospitalarios (dejando de lado el productivo y coyuntural episodio del Tamiflu)...

"Despite the recent success of Tamiflu, the antiviral drug now selling widely to treat pandemic flu, most of Roche's income comes from hospital-prescribed biological treatments such as Avastin, which has ever wider applications in cancer and has been relatively shielded from post-patent competition.

That has allowed the company to charge high prices and avoid the need for costly large primary care sales forces, often much criticised for their marketing tactics."

Novartis tiene "miras" más diversificadas...

"Novartis sells primary care as well as speciality drugs. It has also extended itself beyond prescription-based, patent-protected medicines."

Mientras Novartis se enfrenta a competidores como...

"In the Novartis camp are GlaxoSmithKline, strong in over-the-counter drugs and generics; and Pfizer,broadening its activities with the acquisition this year of Wyeth, which will bolster its presence in vaccines and enable it to access the over-the-counter niche it had turned its back on only a few years before."

Para Roche...

The "pure pharma" approach of Roche, on the other hand, is taken by a shrinking number of companies. This includes AstraZeneca, which has persistently rejected large-scale acquisitions since the purchase of the biologicals business MedImmune. Like Eli Lilly, which includes an animal health division, it labours under questions about its smaller scale, as it is over-shadowed by mega-mergers elsewhere.

Incluso en la concepción arquitectónica de sus sedes centrales aparecen divergencias...

"But while Roche was planning - though it is now re-thinking - a new headquarters in a skyscraper, Novartis is completing a campus-style home."

Enfín..."paralelismo divergente".


Puro oxímoron...