ROCHE & NOVARTIS: Franca pelea respecto al franco...

A propos du franc fort, Severin Schwan contredit l’analyse du directeur général de Novartis 

Les deux géants de l’industrie pharmaceutique suisse – Novartis, numéro un mondial, et Roche, numéro trois – ont une vision totalement différente de l’impact de la décision de la Banque nationale suisse (BNS) sur leurs affaires. 

La levée du taux plancher euro/franc qui a renchéri la monnaie helvétique de près de 20% est saluée par Severin Schwan, patron de Roche. Il s’exprimait mercredi à Bâle à l’occasion de la présentation des résultats du groupe en 2014. Mardi, Joe Jimenez, CEO de Novartis, affichait au contraire sa préoccupation et a annoncé l’examen de mesures de réduction des coûts en francs suisses suite à la décision de la banque centrale. 

 «La BNS a pris une bonne décision. Cela peut faire mal à court terme, mais c’est positif à long terme car cela pousse l’industrie suisse à innover et à augmenter sa productivité, ce qu’elle a d’ailleurs toujours su faire», commente Severin Schwan. Le choc de 2011 était beaucoup plus rude et il a été surmonté, souligne le patron de Roche. «Imaginez que nous avons pu passer d’un taux de 1,60 franc pour 1 euro à 1,20 sans gros dégâts. Alors passer de 1,20 à 1 franc n’est pas dramatique», explique-t-il à quelques journalistes suisses. 

 «En 2011, précise Alan Hippe, directeur financier de Roche, l’impact négatif sur notre chiffre d’affaires avait été de 12%, et celui sur le bénéfice d’exploitation de 15%. Ce sera nettement moins important aujourd’hui, avec une répercussion de 9% sur le bénéfice opérationnel si le cours du franc suisse reste en 2015 à son niveau moyen depuis le 15 janvier.» 

Le fait que Roche tienne sa comptabilité en francs, alors que Novartis le fait en dollars, renforce cet impact comptable comparé au chiffre de 4% cité mardi par Joe Jimenez, patron de Novartis. 

Severin Schwan rappelle que déjà aujourd’hui la prospérité suisse et le haut niveau des salaires en comparaison internationale s’expliquent par la capacité du pays à innover et à augmenter sa productivité. «Le phénomène n’a rien de nouveau, et Roche parviendra à le faire suite à la décision de la BNS, précise-t-il. Il n’y a aucun problème à payer des salaires élevés si la productivité suit et que les bonnes conditions-cadres suisses, comme la qualité de la main-d’œuvre ou la stabilité politique et juridique sont assurées.» (Más)

ROCHE: Severin Schwan dice Nooooo...a Novartis.

Roche Holding AG’s founding families want the Swiss drugmaker to stay independent, Chief Executive Officer Severin Schwan said, squelching speculation that circulated since a board member at crosstown rival Novartis AG said last month a merger could make sense. 

“Nothing has changed with regards to Roche’s position towards Novartis,” Schwan said in a conference call with reporters today. “The families Hoffmann and Oeri have repeatedly stated they’re committed to Roche’s independence.” 

Novartis board member Pierre Landolt said a merger could make sense “from an objective point of view” in a September interview with Basler Zeitung. The newspaper, based in Basel, also the home of both Swiss drugmakers, quoted Landolt as saying that combining the companies would make a European “pharmaceutical champion.” 

Schwan has told investors Roche may make smaller deals to strengthen its core diagnostics and pharmaceutical businesses. In a Bloomberg interview in September, he predicted Roche will buy companies worth less than $1 billion, with a bigger deal comparable to the $3.4 billion purchase of Ventana Medical Systems Inc. in 2008 occurring from “time to time.” 

Roche isn’t into “mega-mergers,” the executive repeated in a teleconference with investors today. “We are firmly committed to bolt-on acquisitions.” 

Novartis holds 33 percent of Roche’s voting shares. Former Chairman Daniel Vasella amassed the stake more than a decade ago but was unable to persuade Roche’s founding families -- who control 50.1 percent of the voting shares -- to agree to a merger. Family members Andre Hoffmann and Andreas Oeri serve on Roche’s board, Hoffmann as vice chairman. (Ver)

Severin Schwan&Vas Narasimhan: Vas y tu cuanto ganas...?

 

While crosstown rivals Roche and Novartis routinely rank among the world's top five drugmakers by revenue, their CEOs typically fall outside the ranks of the top-paid CEOs in the industry. As for 2021, the CEOs of the Swiss drugmakers each collected more than $12 million in total pay.

Roche CEO Severin Schwan collected total pay worth 11.49 million Swiss francs ($12.48 million) last year, the company said in its annual report published Thursday. The helmsman took home a 4 million Swiss franc salary, plus a bonus worth 8 million Swiss francs. In addition, Schwan scored stock appreciation rights worth 3.38 million Swiss francs and restricted stock units worth nearly 600,000 Swiss francs. Other components of Schwan's pay, such as pension funds and an expense allowance, brought his total compensation up to 11.49 million Swiss francs.

For his part, Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan, in his fourth year as chief exec, scored a pay package worth 11.22 million Swiss francs ($12.18 million). About 2.2 million Swiss francs came from fixed pay and benefits, Novartis said in its own annual report (PDF). The remaining 9 million Swiss francs came from Narasimhan's performance-related pay plan.

Novartis hit several of Narasimhan's long-term goals to warrant the payout, the company said. Its annual growth target came in at 119% of the goal in Narasimhan's long-term performance plan, and Novartis' core operating income growth doubled the CEO's target. On innovation metrics, Novartis also exceeded the CEO's performance plan targets, the company said.

For Narasimhan, the 11.22 million Swiss franc pay package represents an 8% percent increase from his 2020 total of 10.38 million Swiss francs. For Schwan, his total pay grew 4% in 2021.

Where Narasimhan's and Schwan's 2021 pays rank among their peers remains to be seen, as Novartis and Roche are typically the first companies to report exec compensation among big pharma companies. Along with their full-year results issued this week, the companies published annual reports with executive and board member compensation information.

But, if last year's results hold true, the pay packages wouldn't rank among the best-paid chief execs in the industry. Regeneron's CEO Len Schleifer took home that distinction last year with $135 million in total compensation, and BioMarin CEO Jean-Jacques Bienaimé rounded out Fierce Pharma's annual top 15 ranking with more than $18 million in total compensation. The Roche and Novartis CEOs didn't make the list in 2019, either. As for Big Pharma revenue rankings, Roche and Novartis ranked second and third among their peers last year, respectively. 

Ver

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...

SUIZA: Vasella (CEO Novartis) encabeza lista de directivos mejor pagados.

1. Rang: Daniel Vasella
VR-Präsident / CEO Novartis

2007: 17'037'002 Fr.

2008: 20'544'032 Fr.

Veränderung: +20.6%.

3. Rang: Franz Hummer
VR-Präsident Roche

2007: 21'641'657 Fr.

2008: 15'228'951 Fr.

Veränderung: -29.6%

8. Rang: Severin Schwan
CEO Roche

Severin Schwan ist seit März 2008 im Amt und konnte in seinem ersten Jahr als Roche-Chef ein Salär von 8'306'000 Fr. einstreichen.

Mira el resto de la lista...

Ver tambien "Cuanto ganan los que más ganan..."

ROCHE: keeps door to NOVARTIS open...

Roche chief Severin Schwan open to co-operation with Novartis 

By James Shotter in Zürich and Andrew Jack in London 

Roche’s chief executive has signalled openness to renewed co-operation with counterparts at his Swiss rival Novartis, in a sign of thawing relations between the two Basel-based pharmaceutical groups. Severin Schwan told the Financial Times in an interview: “If the right opportunity comes up, we would be extremely open to talk with Novartis as we would be with all the other players.”

His comments came just two weeks after Christoph Franz was named to replace Franz Humer as chairman of Roche, and a month after Jörg Reinhardt took over from Daniel Vasella as chairman of Novartis. 

The changes at the top follow a long and frosty relationship between Mr Humer and Mr Vasella, who had masterminded the purchase of a large strategic stake in Roche at the start of the millennium in anticipation of a possible merger. 

Relations between the two men quickly soured, although the companies did co-operate on Xolair and Lucentis, two drugs that Roche controls through its subsidiary Genentech, fully acquired in 2009. 

The arrival of Mr Reinhardt sparked discussion of fresh co-operation, and earlier this month, Pierre Landolt, a Novartis board member, even suggested that a merger of the two companies would make sense “from an objective standpoint”.(Más)

Ver:

Roche & Novartis: LaMattina opina...en Forbes. / "Drug Truths"?

NOVARTIS / Reinhardt descarta "merger" con Roche.

Swiss pharma group Novartis will work more closely with rival Roche but rules out a merger, its chairman said in a newspaper interview on Sunday. 

 Asked whether the two companies wanted to stay independent, Joerg Reinhardt, who took over as Novartis chairman in August, told Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung: "Absolutely." 

He said, however, that he'd met outgoing Roche Chairman Franz Humer a few weeks ago and was also exchanging emails with his successor Christoph Franz. 

 "Two pharma groups working in the same location have many topics in common," he said. Both Roche and Novartis are based in Basel in north-western Switzerland. 

 Asked whether Novartis could sell its stake in Roche that was built up under his predecessor Daniel Vasella, Reinhardt said: "The shares are in good hands with us. For as long as Roche does well, we take pleasure in them." 

 Novartis holds a third of Roche's bearer shares. 

 

In October, Roche Chief Executive Severin Schwan also knocked back speculation that the company could merge with Novartis. 

Reinhardt said in the interview Novartis hoped to conclude an ongoing review of its over-the-counter drugs, animal health and vaccines businesses by the end of the year. 

 "Then we will know if and how we have to change our structure and organisation," he said, adding discussions on possible buys or divestments were under way with partners. 

 "There are not many players and everybody talks to everybody," he said. 

 Novartis said in January it was looking at options for the three businesses and wanted the review to be completed by the end of summer. 

 Reinhardt said Novartis' profitability was only temporarily under pressure due to quality issues in the U.S. and Canada, the fact that the vaccines division was not profitable and falling sales of its former blockbuster Diovan. 

 "Our profitability will rise again," he said, without giving details. (Más)

Ver también:

ROCHE: Severin Schwan dice Nooooo...a Novartis.

ROCHE: keeps door to NOVARTIS open...

Pareja dispareja: Joe/Novartis y Severin/Roche estratégicas diferencias o diferencias en estrategias?

Algunos andan juntos...aunque no les guste.
Otros parece no les gusta, (aunque debieran... o muchos desearan).
En Basilea..."mala sangre".

Que será, será...?

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."

For investors too the issues are potentially serious as governments across the world look to slash drug spending, regulatory standards toughen and looming patent expiries create a tough environment for the drug sector.

.../...

Roche is cutting about 6 percent of its workforce over the next two years, aiming to reduce annual costs by 2.4 billion francs from 2012 onwards, while Novartis's Jimenez, a former H.J. Heinz Co executive who took over in February, has mapped out a broad-based diversification plan.

The latter includes over-the-counter remedies, eye care, vaccines and cheap generic copies of prescription drugs, as well as branded pharmaceuticals.

Investors are also watching the clash of the Basel-based companies for any impact on Novartis' 33 percent stake in Roche's voting shares, a holding which previous CEO Daniel Vasella grabbed nine years ago.

Mas...

Roche "cierra el grifo" a Grecia y...advierte a España (?)

Ha suspendido la entrega de medicamentos para tratar el cáncer y otras enfermedades por la morosidad de la sanidad pública griega

efe

Día 18/09/2011

La farmacéutica Roche ha cortado el suministro de fármacos a algunos hospitales públicos en Grecia, debido a su morosidad, y no descarta hacer lo mismo en otros países, advirtió el presidente del grupo suizo, Severin Schwan, en una entrevista publicada el sábado por el diario neoyorquino The Wall Street Journal.

Schwan indica que en España puede verse obligado a adoptar medidas similares y agrega que algunos hospitales de financiación estatal en Italia y Portugal también han incurrido en morosidad.

En este contexto, Schwan dijo que ha suspendido la entrega de medicamentos para tratar el cáncer y otras enfermedades, porque "hay hospitales (en Grecia) que tienen facturas sin pagar desde hace tres o cuatro años. Llega un momento en que no es sostenible seguir con ellos". (Ver)

Pero...esto no es "nuevo".

Antes fué Novo...

"Roche isn’t the first pharmaceutical company to stop supplies to some Greek buyers. Denmark’s Novo Nordisk S/A last year stopped shipping certain brands of insulin after Greece said it would cut the prices by more than a quarter. The cutoff lasted a few weeks, until Greece agreed to less onerous price reductions. Novo Nordisk continued shipping low-cost generic insulin throughout, but it was sharply criticized by diabetes groups and others for halting supplies of the more expensive products."

Ver:

America's Future? Greece Defaults on Cancer Treatments in State-Owned Hospitals

También:

Cuando Grecia nos "alcance"...o de la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa (RSC).

Sacudida a las farmacéuticas

A medida que el mercado farmacéutico global se vuelve más

difícil, algunos fabricantes de medicinas probablemente quebrarán porque no tendrán suficientes drogas innovadoras que las aseguradoras de salud estén dispuestas a cubrir, afirmó en una entrevista el presidente ejecutivo de Roche Holding AG, Severin Schwan.

Algunos laboratorios podrían verse obligados a declararse en bancarrota en los próximos años, asegura Schwan. Otros podrían verse obligados a fusionarse o a diversificar su producción hacia otros campos. La desaceleración económica global sólo intensificará la frugalidad de los proveedores de servicios de salud y otras entidades que cubren costos médicos.

"En los años 90, todo el mundo salió ganando", afirmó en una entrevista Joe Jiménez, director de la división de fármacos de Novartis.

Pero los precios de las acciones de algunas compañías han caído abruptamente a medida que más y más inversionistas se preocupan por la capacidad de las farmacéuticas de seguir creciendo.

Algunas acciones continuarán cayendo hasta que el valor de las drogas y otros activos de las compañías superen su capitalización de mercado, señaló Jiménez. Para entonces, serán compradas y absorbidas por firmas más grandes. Roche y Novartis tienen ratios de precio y ganancia más sólidos que la mayoría de las empresas en su industria.

Mas...

The 25 most influential people in biopharma today By John Carroll / FierceBiotech

It's no secret that despite a spike in FDA approvals, the biopharma industry has been going through a long and devastating innovation drought. The low rate of new drug approvals threatens the very existence of the pharma business as we know it. Only leaders who can buck that trend--and create one of their own--will survive.
It's against that backdrop that FierceBiotech and FiercePharma present a look at the newsmakers who promise to blaze a trail for others to follow. And it's not just a listing of CEOs. Our report includes an R&D revolutionary, a woman who built her own sizable venture in India, research executives busily mapping new R&D strategies, a developer-turned-university chancellor who has her own views on the brave new world to come and where academics fit into it, along with several others.

Click en cada nombre para ver perfil completo.

Timothy Anderson II Francis Collins Susan Desmond-Hellmann Robert A. Bradway Alex Denner Sir Andrew Dillon Sir Christopher Evans Kenneth Frazier

Richard A. Gonzalez James Greenwood Dr. Margaret Hamburg Yasuchika Hasegawa Joseph Jimenez Jeremy Levin Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw Bernard Munos

Ian Read George Scangos Severin Schwan Moncef Slaoui Lars Rebien Sørensen J. Craig Venter Christopher Viehbacher Tony West Andrew Witty

I wrote part of this report, with Suzanne Elvidge, Mark Hollmer, Ryan McBride and Tracy Staton shouldering the bulk of the work. I'd like some feedback here from readers for next year, when we'll be back with another annual report on influentials. - John Carroll, editor-in-chief

La "Big Pharma" está presente:

Amgen (Bradway), Merck (Frazier), Abbott (Gonzalez), Takeda (Hasegawa), Novartis (Jimenez), Teva (Levin), Pfizer (Read), Biogen (Scangos), Roche (Schwan), Glaxo (Slaoui), Novo (Sorensen), Sanofi (Viehbacher), Glaxo (Witty).