Vasella: 'Teva is better than we are'

Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella [1] has a knack for the quotable quote. Here's the latest: "Teva is better than we are, and that's hard to take."

You'll recall that Vasella has been talking a lot about diversification lately [2], what with Novartis beefing up its optical biz with a big chunk of Alcon [3] and pushing to expand its vaccine operations. Well, the company's generics unit, Sandoz, is another big component of that diversification strategy. And Vasella isn't satisfied with Sandoz's performance. Teva is bigger, it's vertically integrated--and it's been outpacing Sandoz on various key benchmarks. In a glass-half-full take on the difference, Vasella told the WSJ Health Blog that Teva's successes could serve as inspiration. "It is good to look at how we could be better," he said.

- read the Health Blog post [4]

Related Articles:
Novartis' Daniel Vasella--CEO Pay [1]
Vasella touts Novartis' diversification [2]
Novartis taps new U.S. pharma chief [5]
CEO: Novartis plans big restructuring [6]
Novartis pledges $39B for Alcon [3]