Business And Finance In Brief
Executive Summary
Novartis on health care reform's impact: Novartis Pharma CEO Joe Jimenez characterized the impact of health care reform on his company's finances as likely to be moderate but manageable, during an investor call July 16. He refused to specify a figure or even a range, but noted that reform will not be an excuse for poor performance. Offsets are likely to come from lower spend on procurement, sourcing, and commercial operations, which earlier this year underwent a reorganization of the sales force into regional units, each with general managers. The new sales organization is already resulting in "more appropriate and better resource allocation," he said. Unlikely to be hit: the company's total 20 percent R&D-to-sales spend ratio, although the company will seek to reduce total development costs