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McKinsey Quarterly is the business journal of McKinsey & Company.

featured Health Care, Pharmaceuticals  article, Dan Vasella Novartis

July 2009 

McKinsey conversations with global leaders: Dan Vasella of Novartis

The CEO and chairman of Novartis AG shares his personal approach to management and leadership and discusses health care reform, the economic downturn, and executive compensation.

Includes: Video Interactive
Recent Thinking

The Archive

2008

  • February 2008 

    Seizing China’s pharma opportunity

    China’s pharmaceutical market is growing by upward of 20 percent a year, but global drug companies still must capture its full potential.

    Includes: Audio

2007

  • December 2007 

    Building Japan’s generic-drug market

    Makers of generic and branded drugs alike stand to gain by developing the country's fledgling market.

  • September 2007 

    Improving quality in pharma manufacturing

    For pharmaceutical and medical-product companies, adopting world-class manufacturing processes can create a competitive advantage by reducing regulatory risk and production costs.

  • July 2007 

    Using IT to speed up clinical trials

    The first wave of IT improvements solved some problems, but opportunities remain. Now it’s time for a more comprehensive approach.

2006

2004

2003

  • May 2003 

    Pharma for Fido

    The animal health industry will grow steadily over the next several years, providing solid if unspectacular profits for the pharma companies that own most of the businesses in it—but may now wish to divest them.

  • May 2003 

    Pharma goes direct in Japan

    Despite restrictions on drug advertising in Japan, recent pilot campaigns suggest new ways for companies to reach out to patients.

2002

  • November 2002 

    Riding the pharma roller coaster

    In an industry in which many mergers have failed to create value, Fred Hassan has used them to take Pharmacia into the pharmaceutical big leagues. Here he explains how.

  • November 2002 

    The new math for drug licensing

    Pharmaceutical companies that license drugs too late are losing out on significant amounts of value.

  • August 2002 

    Making more of pharma's sales force

    Pharmaceutical companies have lost their focus on doctors. The key to higher sales is regaining it.

  • June 2002 

    Biopharma's capacity crunch

    A shortfall in plant capacity threatens to slow down the delivery of protein-based therapeutics.

  • May 2002 

    A cure for clinical trials

    US pharma companies often miss their deadlines when testing new drugs. The use of marketing techniques to manage the recruitment of patients for clinical trials could speed things up considerably.

2001

2000

  • August 2000 

    Swiss drug makers: Facing the US giants

    Swiss companies participated strongly in the pharmaceutical industry’s recent golden age of wealth creation, but it was their US rivals that set the benchmarks in stock value and performance. “Swiss drug makers: Facing the US giants” describes the moves the Swiss must make to secure their future.

  • May 2000 

    A prescription for direct drug marketing

    The billions so far laid out on direct-to-consumer ads for prescription drugs have mostly failed to deliver. Yet the successes of a few companies show that failure is hardly inevitable.

  • February 2000 

    A license to cure

    Drug companies are more and more likely to license promising pharmaceutical compounds from other companies rather than develop their own. But does licensing pay?

1999

  • November 1999 

    A genetic revolution in health care

    Genetic technologies promise to transform the overall economics of developing and selling drugs. For companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, the question isn't whether to invest but how soon.

1996

  • November 1996 

    Four opportunities in India’s pharmaceutical market

    Since price decontrol, the nominal growth rate has increased to 19 percent per year. Experience has led multinational pharmaceutical companies to cast a jaundiced eye on India’s basic research capabilities. They should reconsider.

  • May 1996 

    Pharmaceuticals - the consolidation isn’t over

    Overcapacity still costs the industry almost half its value. What premiums? Savings can amount to 40 percent of an acquisition’s costs. Could all medical needs be met with 247 drugs?

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