Let’s remember Bexnova in the slides, plus Novartis is in a buying mood.
Wednesday’s pipeline update comes alongside the pharma’s full-year 2025 earnings report, in which Novartis touted more than $54.5 billion in net sales, representing an 8% year-on-year growth. Oncology remained the company’s bread-and-butter, with several cancer drugs emerging as growth drivers. The breast cancer drug Kisqali, for instance, saw a 57% increase to hit $4.78 billion in sales while the leukemia drug Scemblix surged 85% to $1.29 billion.
Alongside the 2025 earnings report, CEO Vas Narasimhan on a media call early Wednesday morning also reaffirmed the value of early-stage investments to Novartis’ overall pipeline strategy. The pharma, he told reporters, is continuously on the lookout for promising Phase 1 candidates.
“We’ve been really consistent in wanting to build out our early-stage pipeline,” Narasimhan said, particularly with deals in the “sub-$2-billion range.”