Novartis initiated a major change in strategy in 2018 under the leadership of Vas Narasimhan, who became chief executive a year ago. The company sold its consumer products business and took steps to divest the Alcon eye division. At the same time it invested heavily in gene therapy and moved into radiopharmaceuticals.
The strategy change was mainly reflected in the company’s operating income for the year which fell by 5% to $8.2 billion due to restructuring and takeovers costs.