Artisan Partners Urges Novartis Board Shake-Up After Trial Setbacks

ManagementRegulation Impact 4
โดย Reuters·CHUS·Read original
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A major Novartis shareholder is calling for a shake-up of the Swiss drugmaker's board, saying successive chairmen have failed the company on acquisitions. David Samra, managing director at Artisan Partners and founding partner of International Value Group, told Reuters that Artisan, among Novartis' 20 largest shareholders, is the first investor to publicly demand board changes after the company's shares suffered a record fall this week. On Tuesday, a muscle-wasting disorder drug acquired through Novartis' $12 billion takeover of U.S. firm Avidity failed a late-stage study, sending shares tumbling more than 10% and wiping nearly $30 billion off its market value, after the stock had already fallen 3% a day earlier when heart drug pelacarsen disappointed investors. Samra urged Chairman Giovanni Caforio to improve the team handling deals and to overhaul compensation that he said relies too heavily on adjusted measures excluding writedowns, though he did not blame CEO Vas Narasimhan, saying he had done a very good job running the business. Novartis said its financial guidance was unchanged by the recent setbacks and that it had a broad pipeline of medicines, adding that it continues a disciplined and shareholder friendly approach to capital allocation through organic investment, value-creating bolt-ons, a growing annual dividend and share buybacks.

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Avidity-acquired muscle-wasting drug failed a late-stage study and pelacarsen disappointed, triggering a record share fall and investor calls for board changes.

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