a16z Podcast

On Pharma Trends and Big Company Innovation

Vas Narasimhan, Jorge Conde, Vijay Pande, and Sonal Chokshi

Posted January 11, 2020

How does the world’s largest producer of medicines in terms of volume balance the science and the business of innovation? How does an enterprise at such vast scale make decisions about what to build vs. buy, especially given the fast pace of science today? How does it balance attitudes between “not invented here” and “not invented yet”?

Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, sat down with a16z bio general partners Jorge Conde and Vijay Pande, and editor in chief Sonal Chokshi, during the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference around this time last year, to discuss the latest trends in therapeutics; go to market and why both big companies and bio startups need to get market value signals (not just approvals!) from payers earlier in the process; clinical trials, talent, leadership, and more in this rerun of the a16z Podcast.

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The a16z Podcast discusses the most important ideas within technology with the people building it. Each episode aims to put listeners ahead of the curve, covering topics like AI, energy, genomics, space, and more.

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