Asciminib Hydrochloride

Novartis chief executive Vas Narasimhan said Thursday that "the largest patent expiry" in the company's history will wipe out $4 billion in sales in 2026, although overall revenue is still predicted to grow this year in the low single-digits on a constant currency basis. Generic competition to Entresto, Tasigna and Promacta entered the US in 2025, leading to sharp declines in sales of the products in the second half of the year.This is expected to continue in the first half of 2026. "This creates, of course, a full-year effect that comes mainly in half one," explained Chief Financial Officer Harry Kirsch.Kirsch — speaking on a media call — echoed Narasimhan's assessment, calling it "the biggest generic effect that we ever had in the last 20 years." However, he said in terms of guidance, it's "easy to model" the impact. "You take the US sales…of last year first half. And then you see that basically most of this goes away fully as of half one this year. And so it's really an achievement to grow the company."Despite the expected uptick in sales this year, which will be led by Novartis' current growth drivers — Kisqali, Kesimpta, Pluvicto, Scemblix and Cosentyx — core operating income is predicted to decline in the low single-digits on a constant currency basis.Two new blockbustersContributing to 2026 growth will be two newly-crowned blockbuster products, with sales from both Leqvio and Scemblix crossing the $1-billion threshold for the first time in 2025. Revenue from the lipid-lowering drug Leqvio jumped 59% last year to $1.2 billion, while sales of chronic myeloid leukaemia treatment Scemblix surged 87% to $1.3 billion.Narasimhan said that while Leqvio has benefited from "solid, but not spectacular growth in the US," its performance in other markets, particularly in China, has driven growth. The product recently received NRDL listing in China, which Narasimhan suggested will "be a significant accelerant…for the brand."Meanwhile, Narasimhan noted that Scemblix has posted "very strong growth," with the company remaining confident that the drug could generate peak sales of over $4 billion. "So both of these medicines will be very important for our growth through the end of the decade, but also into the middle of the 2030s," Narasimhan said.The performance of Leqvio and Scemblix, coupled with Novartis' other growth drivers, propelled sales in 2025 up 8% to $50.3 billion, while net income rose 17% to $11.9 billion.Revenue growth was more muted in the final quarter of the year, rising 1% to $13.3 billion, with generic competition having a negative impact of 15 percentage points. Sales of Entresto fell 43% in the fourth quarter to $1.3 billion, Promacta was down 61% to $226 million and Tasigna slipped 56% to $179 million.In contrast, three-month revenue from Cosentyx increased 13% to $1.8 billion; Kisqali grew 46% to $1.3 billion; Kesimpta was up 29% to $1.2 billion; and Pluvicto lifted 72% to $605 million.

Created with Canva Dreamlab † Novartis will still be on the lookout for early-stage deals under $2 billion, and later-stage agreements around a product that could reach the market within five years, CEO Vas Narasimhan said Wednesday. After back-to-back-to-back big-ticket acquisitions in 2025, Novartis appears to have no plans to slow down. CEO Vas Narasimhan told reporters Wednesday that the pharma’s dealmaking strategy will remain largely the same in 2026, with the goal of beefing up both its early- and late-stage pipelines. “There’s really no change in our M&A strategy,” Narasimhan said Wednesday morning during a media call to present the pharma’s 2025 earnings results. “We’ve been really consistent in wanting to build out our early-stage pipeline” with deals in the “sub-$2-billion range.” At the same time, Novartis is also on the lookout to “bring in medicines that could launch in the next five years,” Narasimhan added. To this end, he pointed out, the pharma has taken several major steps: Last October, the company acquired Avidity Biosciences for approximately $12 billion in an agreement that would turn out to be one of 2025’s largest . The previous month, the pharma made a $1.4 billion bet to swallow Tourmaline Bio, which followed a $3.1 billion play in February 2025 to absorb the privately held Anthos Therapeutics. All three of these acquisitions gave Novartis a clutch of mid- to late-stage assets to advance to the market. obesity JPM26: Novartis Doesn’t Have a GLP-1. They Don’t Miss It In a World Of Me-Toos Speaking to BioSpace at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Novartis’ chief dealmaker Ronny Gal explains why the Swiss pharma hasn’t acquired a GLP-1, and why it probably won’t. January 13, 2026 · 3 min read · Annalee Armstrong In between these buyouts, Novartis also inked a flurry of agreements for earlier-stage assets. These include a $5.7 billion deal with Monte Rosa to develop molecular glue degraders, a $1.7 billion AI-heavy contract with Relation to design drugs for atopic dermatitis and a $1.5 billion partnership with China’s SciNeuro for an anti-amyloid antibody for Alzheimer’s disease. “We really don’t look at the size of the deal,” Narasimhan told reporters. Instead, the company is focused on how a particular asset or company fits into its overall pipeline strategy. Novartis’ net sales in 2025 grew 8% year-on-year at constant currencies, exceeding $54.5 billion . The pharma’s best-selling product was the heart failure drug Entresto, which brought in nearly $7.75 billion in 2025—though this represented a 2% decrease from the same period the year prior. Growth was mainly driven by the breast cancer therapy Kisqali, which jumped 57% year-on-year to earn $4.78 billion, and the prostate cancer radioconjugate Pluvicto, which made $1.99 billion, a 42% increase. Scemblix, approved for the treatment of certain types of chronic myeloid leukemia, surged 85% to hit 2025 sales of $1.29 billion. Novartis forecasts continued stability and growth for 2026, with net sales anticipated to increase by a low-single-digit percentage.