Podcast
“The Zero Hour”
Novartis Germany boss Thomas Lang: “There are hidden pandemics”
Laboratory employee at Novartis
© Yannick Bailly / Keystone / Picture Alliance
The corona crisis has significantly changed the structure of the pharmaceutical industry: Small players like Biontech have developed more successful vaccines than the pharmaceutical giants. Novartis Germany boss Thomas Lang speaks in the podcast about the upheaval in the market.
A year and a half after the start of the corona pandemic, the pharmaceutical landscape looks very different than before: In the race for a vaccine, small players like Biontech were able to assert themselves – while large pharmaceutical giants sometimes backed the wrong horse. Novartis, the third largest pharmaceutical company in the world in 2020, had teamed up with the Tübingen-based biotech company Curevac to produce the vaccine. However, this has since been abandoned due to insufficient effectiveness.
Nevertheless, Novartis’ Germany boss Thomas Lang rates the changes in the pharmaceutical industry as positive. “The current situation has opened up a whole range of new opportunities and partnerships,” he says in the podcast “The Zero Hour”. An example of this: The first forecasts predicted that the first Covid vaccine would be available in the summer of 2021. “We have all seen that the whole thing then happened much faster thanks to a historic effort and the cooperation of many partners in the health system,” said Lang.
“Strong alliances” asked
The fight of the pharmaceutical industry against Covid-19 is not limited to the vaccination: There are also “direct antiviral substances, and substances against the so-called acute phase of the disease, where the aim is to get the excessive inflammation, reactions and immune reactions under control get, “explains Lang. There is also intensive collaboration in this field: “There are 260 vaccination programs and over 500 therapeutic projects worldwide,” says the head of Novartis Germany.
These collaborations and efforts could also be used against other diseases in the future, such as cancer. And in addition to the “historical task” of the corona pandemic, there are also “hidden pandemics”, such as cardiovascular diseases, says Lang. “Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in Europe, even ahead of cancer.” In Germany, almost every third death can be attributed to it. And since Covid-19 also affects the cardiovascular system, these diseases would become even more important in the next few years. Against this, the pharmaceutical companies will have to “form strong alliances”, says Lang.
Listen in the new episode of “The Zero Hour”:
- What the next big breakouts could be
- How the way Novartis employees work has changed in the pandemic
- Whether Lang is allowed to work from Mallorca
You can find all episodes directly at Audio Now, Apple or Spotify or via Google.