Novartis
“can never be done” when it comes to major acquisitions in its sector as it always needs to look for the next “great asset,” CEO Vas Narasimhan told CNBC.
In order to offset the hit from generics competition Novartis has been on a buying spree, acquiring more than 35 companies over the last year. The Swiss drugmaker announced its biggest deal in a decade on Sunday, when it announced it has agreed to buy U.S. biotechnology company Avidity Biosciences for about $12 billion.
The purchase will give the Basel, Switzerland-based pharma giant access to Avidity’s vast pipeline of promising experimental drugs. Novartis said two of Avidity’s three leading drugs that are expected to be launched before 2030 have the potential to generate billions of dollars in sales.
“We are driven by science and the technology, in this case this was a perfect fit for us … If you take a look at our free cash flow it approaching $20 billion a year, so we have adequate firepower to do deals like this and to bolster the growth profile of the company,” Narasimhan told CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition.”
