Novartis major shareholder calls for board restructuring to improve corporate governance

Novartis (NVS.US) major shareholder calls for board reshuffle to improve corporate governance. The company's share price suffered a record drop this week due to consecutive trial setbacks. Major shareholder David Samra stated: “Successive chairpersons have been disappointing when it comes to acquisitions, and the company needs to change the way it oversees deals.” He also urged Novartis chairman Giovanni Caforio to take action. Samra said: “I believe he needs to make changes at the board level. One of these should be improving the team responsible for these transactions, because clearly, their performance has been mediocre at best.” On Tuesday, Novartis’ $12 billion acquisition of a muscle atrophy drug from U.S. company Avidity failed in late-stage studies, causing the company's shares to plunge by more than 10% and wiping out nearly $30 billion in market value. The previous day, results for the heart drug pelacarsen had disappointed investors.