STEFFEN LANG
NOVARTIS and manufacturing as he looked for a more direct line to patient impact.
He explains:“ In manufacturing, I believe, you’ re closest to seeing the impact that our life-changing medicines have on patients.”
It is this patient proximity that has shaped how he thinks about operations. Steffen describes the day-to-day work of his teams as not just running incredibly
STEFFEN LANG
PRESIDENT, OPERATIONS
Steffen has served as President, Operations at Novartis since April 2022 and is a member of the Executive Committee. He leads the company’ s Operations organisation which spans manufacturing, supply, quality, IT, procurement and sustainability. With more than 30 years at Novartis, Steffen has held senior leadership roles across technical development, manufacturing and operations, having joined the company in 1994 as a research scientist. With around 20,000 colleagues, Operations supports reliable and compliant delivery across the value chain and provides enterprise technology and services to more than 77,000 Novartis associates worldwide. Steffen holds a doctorate in pharmaceutical technology from ETH Zurich. complex factories and logistics networks, but making sure medicines reach people when and where they are needed most.
Steffen explains:“ We have a legacy, at Novartis, of pioneering new innovative treatments and the way we deliver these treatments needs to be as innovative as the treatments themselves.” This has become even more important through the evolution of the Novartis portfolio to one focused on oncology, neuroscience, cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases, as well as immunology.
The company’ s operational challenge is, therefore, not just scale, but complexity. Some of its newer therapies are highly individualised, others involve radioactive materials and all require precise planning, careful handling and strict quality control.
Operations as a foundation for innovation Steffen says one of the biggest changes across his career has been the arrival of automation, new technologies and, more recently, artificial intelligence. These tools have changed the way Novartis works, he explains.
“ The latest advancements in automation and AI have dramatically changed the way we work for the better,” he says.“ Across Operations we are operating in a more connected, more integrated and more end to end way – helping us plan and run at a higher capacity to meet growing demand.” This shift also matters because Novartis increasingly operates at the frontier of medicine and often is the
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