EXCLUSIVE: Novartis CEO says weight-loss drug Ozempic a 'medical breakthrough', but we won't be driven by FOMO

"I think it's these drugs, do an incredible job for people who are, I think, really overweight and need to reduce weight to reduce their risk and I think that cardiovascular risk is also reduced," Narasimhan said, highlighting Ozempic's role in weight reduction and cardiovascular risk mitigation.

The CEO however, acknowledged that despite Ozempic's promising outcomes, patient adherence and long-term tolerance pose significant challenges. "A few things to know is that risk is independent of the other risk factors. So you still need to manage your blood pressure, your lipids and cholesterol, these other factors I mentioned earlier, etc," he said, adding, "Nonetheless, it's a clear medical breakthrough."

Speaking about the future of obesity treatments, Narasimhan pondered, "I think clearly the question will be how, over time, patients will stay on these medicines. How will they tolerate them because you have to stay on the medicines to continue the weight loss?" He elaborated Novartis' approach to exploring innovative solutions in the obesity space, envisioning medications that maintain muscle mass and offer infrequent dosing. "Our approach is to look at the next generation, hopefully, of technologies in the obesity space," he said.

While acknowledging the time required for such innovations to materialise, Narasimhan reaffirmed Novartis' dedication to advancing obesity treatments. "Can you get medicines that don't cause nausea, medicines that allow you to maintain your muscle mass because these medicines do cause you to lose your muscle mass? Can you get medicines that are not injected every week or every month taken infrequently? So that would be probably a decade and beyond. But that's certainly what we're thinking about is much more than the next generation of obesity treatments," the Novartis CEO added.