Novartis global chief focuses on innovative medicines for Indian market

Narasimhan said he sees no need for more manufacturing in India

Novartis International looks to bring in medicines for malaria, sickle cell anaemia and leprosy to India, said the global chief executive officer of the Swiss pharma multinational, Vasant Narasimhan.

"These diseases are prevalent in India and other developing countries, and Novartis sees a significant market opportunity in providing innovative treatments," Narasimhan said in an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18.

He mentioned how, over the last five years, the company tried to be at the 'leading edge' of therapeutic areas like cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurological disease and also spoke about the firm's plans for expansion in India.

"And we now try to bring that innovation to India consistently and at scale... We have a drug for heart failure and now we try to bring a drug for high cholesterol," he said. "We also have done a lot in immunology with our whole immunology franchise and probably the big area now is cancer, and how can we be one of the lead partners with India in cancer."

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Narasimhan sees no need for more manufacturing in India since the company has invested heavily in drug making in the country and feels that it is well-equipped to meet its production needs.

“In terms of manufacturing, we are not in need of more capacity at the moment, given that we have trimmed our business down to focus as a pure-play medicines company, so no plans for manufacturing at the moment,” he said.

India parallels the global story for Novartis, according to Narasimhan.

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“We were the company that pioneered the drug called Coartem which is the most widely used antimalarial in the world. Going forward, we have a dedicated R&D centre, we are working on novel anti-malarials, clinical trials are ongoing right now in Africa and in India with the idea to get even better treatments for patients with malaria,” Narasimhan said.