“We view the ability to move talent around the world as core to how we work,” says Vasant (Vas) Narasimhan, Novartis Global Head of Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer.

With major research sites in the US, Switzerland, China and India, Vas, as he is popularly called says, “These are international sites that work on global projects. So that ability to share talent, move technology around the world is core to who we are. So we feel very strongly and that needs to continue to be supported for all innovation to happen.”

Vas was in India recently and he was responding to a query on the increasing chants for protectionism, as Britain braces for its exit from the European Union and the US under President Trump looks to put “America First”.

“Cambridge, Shanghai, Basel, East Hannover, the development centre here in Hyderabad, so there's no question we are a global enterprise. That means anyone of our development projects in my organisation touches all of those sites. And we have teams that come together, there are teams from all those sites who come together, to meet, discuss, to work together seamlessly. So it is absolutely critical we are able to do that. But I am confident…that (when) the policy makers understand the implications they'll come up with better hopeful solutions,” he says.

Reasonable approach Nevertheless, it’s probably too soon to judge how any of this will play out, says Vas.

“We have to see the real policy interventions because on one hand there is a lot of rhetoric, and on the other hand, there is a desire to have businesses succeed.”

Among the world’s largest companies, employing about 1,30,000 people, Novartis invests between $8 billion and $9 billion in research and development, he says.

“So for all of those reasons we expect that in the end there will be a reasonable approach,” he says.

There isn’t anxiety, as businesses wonder what’s next. “It’s more of wait and see,” he says.

And once it settles, “then we will adapt and we will adjust ...as a company, between our predecessor companies and the formation of Novartis in 1996, we have been doing this for over a 100 years, so we're confident we will find a way to adapt,” says Vas.

Back to basics While foreign companies often complain on intellectual property (IP) being the key stumbling block for them in India, Vas shines a light on another concern.

“We view the IP situation progressing over the recent years in the right direction. We would like better certainty around compulsory licensing , and when if at all it would be used and stronger data protection ...But it’s all going in the right direction...I don’t think that's really impacting the drug discovery research. I think it’s much more of a scientific capability in the country.”

Giving the examples of clusters like Boston, California, Switzerland and even a more nascent Shanghai, he says, “You have a combination of universities doing world class research. You have big companies that have large infrastructure to do research. You have biotech companies, you have venture capital. All of that creates this eco system where you want to then invest in your research, so you are part of all of the activity that happens and that has been built up in each of these locations.”

“In India, there has to be that build up of those clusters. I think Hyderabad is a nice example where you have a lot of the firms who are coming here. But it’s still very early days. One of the things probably the government has to think through (within the constraints of the budget) is investing more in basic science research because in Japan and China and to some extent in Switzerland and certainly in the US at the NIH, the government prime pumped so to speak to get that grant funding to allow that basic science research to happen.”

India's capabilities in analytics, engineering and chemistry are being leveraged by the company.

But basic science and research need more attention, he adds.

The company’s top management point out the industry's standing plea to the government to increase spending on science and technology from less than one per cent of GDP now.

(The writer was in Hyderabad at the invitation of the company)

* The article has been corrected for a factual error

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