Novartis’ emphasis on rare diseases is propelled not by profitability or market size but by the possibility of significantly improving the lives of patients. This strategy focuses on finding model diseases that have certain extreme mechanisms and try to apply drugs. Once a positive impact is generated, Novartis pursues other targets with similar molecular pathways.
Take Ilaris for instance. Ilaris was initially indicated for people with terrible rashes and fever from birth. That’s just a small patient base. The first patient treated using Ilaris showed disappearance of symptoms. Slowly, Novartis’ R&D added new insights to the drug. Now, Ilaris is prescribed to treat patients with gout.
Novartis is spending great amounts of money for R&D. But they believe that going with mechanisms that are better known do not lead to new discoveries. Novartis believes that the sacrifice of short-term benefits would build brighter future.
The company prides in an R&D team that possesses scientific resilience and fighting spirit to go through difficult times. Novartis has been through a lot of researches that almost died at one point. But the company’s determination to work for a deeper purpose glued its people together, unleashing a lot of energy to succeed.
To seal their competitive advantage, Novartis has turned a former industrial production site in Basel into a laboratory where informatics, bioinformatics and communication tools are integrated to enhance research. This lab in Basel has developed a communication system where researchers can exchange structures with their colleagues in the US with just a push of a button.
Novartis has a new plant in North Carolina that goes ahead with mass-producing vaccines against the much-feared H1N1. The company continues to face the threat of the pandemic. Novartis did not have second thoughts about producing the vaccine even if the threats are gone.