In the view of the IMD, out of the globally active pharma companies Roche is the best prepared for the future. The Basel-based firm scored full marks of 100 points and therefore secured top spot in the Future Readiness Indicator 2024 compiled by the private business school based in Lausanne. Last year, Roche finished in fifth place with a score of just 82.3 points.

According to the analysts in Lausanne, Roche excels in the area of research and development, as well as through its ability to quickly implement innovations and its full product pipeline. Roche achieved a score of 100 points across all three subcategories, with the IMD additionally reserving praise for the diversification of the company’s product portfolio.

Also Novartis among the best

With a score of 93.2 points, Novartis also ranks among the leading lights of the top five most future-ready companies. This represents an improvement on its score of 85.4 points last year. The company impressed in particular with the diversification of its business portfolio. Howard Yu highlights the importance of diversification for the future readiness of pharmaceutical companies: “Given the uncertainties of scientific discovery and what will be the next moonshot, means that for pharmaceutical companies, having a broader portfolio is more important than ever before to hedge risk”, as the Director of the IMD Center for Future Readiness observed.

Both Roche and Novartis have moved to strengthen their business through acquisitions. For example, Roche agreed a takeover of the cell therapy company Poseida Therapeutics from San Diego, California, for a price of around 1.5 billion US dollars. The two firms had already been working together since 2022. For its part, Novartis acquired Kate Therapeutics, a gene therapy specialist also based in San Diego, at a cost of up to 1.1 billion US dollars.