The Day Novartis Chose Discovery
19 days ago
- #Corporate Research
- #Pharmaceutical Innovation
- #Drug Discovery
- Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) was founded in 2002 under Mark Fishman, a Harvard cardiologist with no prior pharmaceutical experience, to reinvigorate Novartis' internal drug discovery.
- NIBR operated on four heretical principles: fast proof-of-concept in extreme phenotypes, organizing around biological pathways rather than market categories, deep collaboration with academia, and building on prior research rather than starting from scratch.
- Under Fishman's leadership, 65% of Novartis' new drug approvals came from internal discovery, including blockbusters like Gleevec, Gilenya, Cosentyx, and Entresto, which collectively generated $146 billion in lifetime sales.
- NIBR's success was attributed to its biology-first approach, minimal commercial oversight, and integration of translational medicine physicians into discovery teams from the outset.
- Despite its success, NIBR began dismantling in 2016 due to financial pressures, shifting focus to commercially viable projects and away from curiosity-driven research.
- The pharmaceutical industry at large has increasingly outsourced innovation, focusing on share buybacks and dividends over R&D, leading to a decline in breakthrough discoveries.
- NIBR's model demonstrated that systematic, biology-first research could yield significant breakthroughs, but its dismantling highlights the tension between long-term innovation and short-term financial pressures.