Top-20 Novartis shareholder demands board shake-up after back-to-back trial failures

16 September 2026

David Samra, managing director at Artisan Partners, the US fund manager, has called for changes to the board of Novartis (NOVN: VX), telling Reuters that "the party is over" for the Swiss pharma major after a run of clinical setbacks wiped billions off its market value.

Mr Samra, also founding partner of Artisan's International Value Group and among Novartis's 20 largest shareholders, said successive chairmen had failed to properly oversee the company's acquisitions and urged chairman Giovanni Caforio to act. 

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