Novartis CEO explains the radical rethink that transformed a 250-year-old pharma giant

But I think there was a realization, at least as I started to oversee R and D at the company and then eventually became CEO, I really took the view that we would be better served to focus down as a pure play company, focus only on biopharmaceuticals. And even within biopharmaceuticals, try to focus on therapeutic areas we think would really matter. And so what we did over the last year is we did a really pretty radical rethink of the company. We exited our consumer health business, a joint venture with GSK. Now it's a standalone public company.