28 February 2019 - Novartis’s shift into high-tech drugs won praise for providing patients with new options but criticism over prices that may run into the millions of dollars at the Swiss drugmaker’s annual general meeting on Thursday.

Swiss shareholder group Actares said insurance systems are being “taken hostage” by high prices for life-saving drugs. It called out Novartis’s $475,000 cancer cell therapy Kymriah and its still-unapproved gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy that Novartis contends is cost-effective at $4-$5 million per patient, while independent groups have concluded its value is less than that.

Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan, who did not testify this week before the U.S. Senate with other global drug industry executives also facing criticism for drug prices, said he seeks to price medicines based on their value, adding Novartis needs a fair return to further research and development.

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