AI. Telemedicine. Quantum. New Novartis Boss Says Tech Will Finally Change The Drug Biz

What does the youngest chief executive in Big Pharma want? When Vas Narasimhan, 41, took the helm of drug giant Novartis in February, he'd already put the project in motion. Novartis scouts were dispatched to visit air traffic control towers and the Swiss electrical grid to see how other industries dealt with torrents of data. Working with McKinsey's QuantumBlack unit, they built a software system called Nerve that not only keeps track of every data point on all 550 clinical trials testing Novartis drugs, but also uses analytic software to predict potential hiccups in the execution of those studies. Soon Narasimhan will be able to walk into mission control at the company's Basel, Switzerland, headquarters and call up whatever information he needs in an instant. "When you look at history, it takes the medical establishment 50 to 75 years to actually change how we do clinical studies," Narasimhan says.