Novartis Investor Demands Board Shake-Up After Record Share Fall — SkimNews
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- David Samra, managing director at Artisan Partners and founding partner of International Value Group, called for a shake-up of Novartis's board to improve corporate governance following the share collapse.
- Samra said successive chairmen had failed Novartis on acquisitions and that the company needed to change how it oversees deals, per Reuters.
- Novartis disclosed that its muscle-wasting disorder drug acquired through its $12 billion takeover of Avidity failed a late-stage study, while results from heart drug pelacarsen disappointed investors.
- Novartis shares suffered a record fall this week following the back-to-back trial setbacks.
- CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said the Trump administration is pursuing additional drug-pricing deals with pharmaceutical companies, per Bloomberg.
- Officials have announced more than two dozen voluntary agreements in which companies lower prices charged to public programs and launch new drugs at prices similar to other developed nations in exchange for tariff relief.
- Each of the voluntary agreements is bespoke, with the structure tailored to individual companies.
Why it matters: A high-profile value investor publicly targeting Novartis's board after a $12 billion Avidity acquisition flunked late-stage trials puts direct pressure on the company's M&A oversight and chair succession. For shareholders, the signal is concrete: a major institutional holder is calling acquisitions governance the root failure, not just bad luck on pelacarsen.
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