Kurt Graves
EVP, CCO, Head, Strategic Development, Vertex
MENTOR: David Brennan, former boss at Astra Merck, told him: "Find what's interesting and challenging and make a difference
in the company."
LAUNCH STREAK: A record nine drugs in 18 months at Novartis
Kurt Graves
|
The rollout of Astra Merck came a full year earlier than planned. "We asked, 'How will we do this?'" remembers Kurt Graves.
"Because it literally was a white sheet of paper." The only instructions from Merck CEO Roy Vagelos? "Go build America's 21st
century pharma company."
Since those days, Graves hasn't stopped building—although the definition of a US pharma has evolved. At Astra Merck, he used
blockbuster marketing to grow the flagship drug Prilosec, moving the company's sales from $150 million to $4 billion. As marketing
chief of Novartis, he focused more on strategy. "Novartis was growing 4 percent—and 3.9 percent of it was price," says Graves.
"Within a year, we completely changed the portfolio strategy, and repositioned and launched a lot of brands." From 2000–2004,
Novartis was one of the fastest growing pharmas, with a 20 percent compound annual growth rate.
When Graves joined Vertex in July 2007, the model had yet again changed—and he was handed another blank slate on which to
build a new model for a promising hep C drug. Graves seems up for the challenge: "To me, it's important to be part of a company
that redefines what the industry will look like. We don't have a commercial model we have to fundamentally change. The beauty
is that we get to build from scratch."
PharmExec Blog
Follow Us
RSS
Bookstore
