Secukinumab

Novartis’ reorganization is paying off, CEO Vas Narasimhan told investors at an event Thursday in London. The company raised its sales guidance through 2028 and now expects to grow sales at a 6% annual rate, as opposed to its previous expected growth rate of 5%. That additional percentage point reflects about $2.5 billion in additional sales between 2023 and 2028, CFO Harry Kirsch said Thursday on a call with reporters. Narasimhan attributed the updated guidance in part to Novartis’ transformation into a “pure-play” company. It’s been roughly a year since the drugmaker completed a global restructuring that involved the spinout of Sandoz, its generics unit. Narasimhan said the “simplified” structure has allowed Novartis to focus on “the biggest opportunities that we have in the pipeline.” “It’s been a three-year journey to streamline this portfolio, to go from what was one of the largest portfolios — 155 projects — down to 94,” he said on the same call. Novartis also touted a “sharpened” commercial structure, saying it allows for greater investment in key brands. Novartis is increasing its peak sales estimates for five products: Cosentyx, Kisqali, Kesimpta, Pluvicto and Leqvio. “For 25 years, Novartis led the industry in the number of FDA approvals, but we’re never in the top quartile in the value of those approvals,” Narasimhan told reporters. “It’s been a major effort to streamline down to what we think are the most high-value assets, and what that’s allowed us to do is increase the amount of resources we have on each project.” While Novartis has cited its radioligand therapy Pluvicto as one of several “large, in-market growth drivers in the base business,” Narasimhan said uptake is behind where executives would like it to be. The company alleviated concerns around radiopharma shortages by bringing on more manufacturing capacity. The company predicted Pluvicto would generate $2 billion in peak sales globally under its initial indication, an advanced type of prostate cancer. However, Narasimhan said he would have liked to get there faster, attributing the lag to challenges at community oncology centers. The drug generated $980 million in sales last year. “We were very successful in the large academic medical centers and hospitals,” he said. “It’s taken much longer to get community oncologists in the United States to utilize Pluvicto at rates that we hoped.” Novartis has applied for a label expansion to bring Pluvicto into the pre-taxane setting for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, which would triple the amount of patients eligible to receive it. The company is expecting a decision next year. “At that point in time, we would expect the acceleration to continue,” Narasimhan said.