How Novartis does innovation
In a one-hour video presentation for MIT World, Novartis Chairman and CEO Daniel Vasella explains the innovation process behind one of his company’s flagship pharmaceuticals, Gleevec. The discovery, development and marketing of this drug, which fights the rare chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), highlights some of the things Novartis does right. For example, during an important period of coordinating clinical trials and winning FDA approval for the drug, employees at Novartis volunteered to work in 24-hour shifts, seven days a week. In summarizing the success of the innovation process at Novartis, Vasella cites “intrinsic motivation in each Novartis staff member, high standards, savvy risk-taking and persistence in both research and marketing, and a company culture that brings out the best in everyone."
As always, MIT World provides excellent show notes for the one-hour presentation. There's also a brief bio sketch for Vasella and a short history of how Gleevec started out as an untested idea and emerged as a multi-billion-dollar blockbuster drug.
[image: Daniel Vasella of Novartis]
