Vas Narasimhan

Narasimhan was born in 1976. He is an American national of Indian origin and is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.⁠[1][2]

Narasimhan earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of Chicago, then a Doctor of Medicine from Harvard Medical School and a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private research university in Massachusetts, established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature in 1636 and named in 1639 for early benefactor John Harvard. Its principal campuses are in Cambridge and the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston. It includes Harvard College, graduate and professional schools, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Two governing boards share oversight. Alan M. Garber was president as of October 2026, and the endowment stood at $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.Open the full entry’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.⁠[1][2]

During and after his medical studies he worked on public health programs addressing HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in India, Africa and South America.⁠[1][3]

Narasimhan joined Novartis in 2005. From 2008 to 2012 he was North America Region Head of Novartis Vaccines and US Country President of Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, and from 2012 to 2014 he was Global Head of Development for Novartis Vaccines.⁠[1]

In 2014 Narasimhan was Global Head of Biopharmaceuticals and Oncology Injectables at Sandoz International in Germany; from 2014 to 2016 he was Global Head of Development at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, and from 2016 to 2018 Global Head of Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer of Novartis AG.⁠[1]

Narasimhan became chief executive officer of Novartis on February 1, 2018. Novartis says that under his leadership the company narrowed its focus to core therapeutic areas and technology platforms including siRNA, radioligand therapy and cell and gene therapies, pursued a cultural transformation and applied data science and technology in research and development, and that he has overseen more than 35 novel medicine and vaccine approvals.⁠[1]

The Novartis page quotes him: “I never lose my sense of wonder at how human ingenuity is leading to longer, healthier lives.”⁠[1]

On January 13, 2019, Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry (a16z) released the a16z Podcast episode “a16z Podcast: The Science and Business of Innovative Medicines,” which was uploaded to the a16z YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel on January 16, 2019. Recorded at the J.P. Morgan healthcare conference in San Francisco, it featured Jorge CondeJorge CondeJorge Conde is a biotechnology entrepreneur and a general partner on the Bio + Health team at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).Open the full entry, a general partner on a16z’s Bio + Health team, Vijay Pande, the team’s founding general partner, and a16z editor Sonal Chokshi in conversation with Narasimhan.⁠[4][5]

Starting from the observation that only about one in 20 medicines entering human trials works and that this rate had changed little over 15 years, the episode discussed how Novartis, the largest producer of medicines by volume, balances science and business; how it decides what to build versus buy; therapeutic trends including cell and gene therapies such as CAR-T and RNA-based modalities; how far science has moved toward engineering; the need for earlier payer signals on value; reinventing clinical trials; and leadership lessons for scientific and technical leaders.⁠[4]

From 2023 to 2024 Narasimhan chaired the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), and he remains on its board of directors.⁠[1][3]

Narasimhan was named to TIMETIMETIME is an American newsmagazine and media brand founded by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden, which published its first issue on March 3, 1923; it is headquartered in New York and known for its Person of the Year selection and the TIME100 list. Since 2018 it has been personally owned by Marc and Lynne Benioff; its current Chief Executive Officer is Jessica Sibley, and its Editor-in-Chief is Sam Jacobs.Open the full entry’s 2025 list of the 100 Most Influential People in Health.⁠[1]

On April 14, 2026, AnthropicAnthropicAnthropic is an artificial intelligence research and product company founded in 2021 that develops the Claude models, assistant, and tools such as Claude Code, and operates as a public benefit corporation. Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei are its co-founders, and its research covers model safety, interpretability, and steerability.Open the full entry announced that its Long-Term Benefit Trust had appointed Narasimhan to its board of directors. Anthropic is a public benefit corporation whose board is elected by stockholders and the Long-Term Benefit Trust; with the appointment, Trust-appointed directors made up a majority of the board, whose members were Dario AmodeiDario AmodeiDario Amodei is an artificial intelligence researcher and the co-founder and chief executive officer of Anthropic. Trained in physics and biophysics, he conducted research at Baidu, Google Brain, and OpenAI, where he led research including work on GPT-2 and GPT-3. His career spans large-model development, AI safety, interpretability, and public policy.Open the full entry, Daniela AmodeiDaniela AmodeiDaniela Amodei is an American executive who co-founded the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, where she serves as president and chairs the board. After early work in international development and politics, she held roles at Stripe and OpenAI before co-founding Anthropic in 2021 with her brother Dario Amodei and others.Open the full entry, Yasmin Razavi, Jay Kreps, Reed HastingsReed HastingsReed Hastings is an entrepreneur who co-founded Netflix with Marc Randolph in 1997 and led it as CEO for more than 25 years before serving as executive chairman from 2023 to 2026. Since 2025 he has been a director of Anthropic.Open the full entry, Chris Liddell and Narasimhan.⁠[3]

In the announcement Narasimhan said: “Anthropic is setting the standard for how AI should be developed to benefit humanity.”⁠[3]

Narasimhan is an elected member of the US National Academy of Medicine and a member of the Council on Foreign RelationsCouncil on Foreign RelationsThe Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is a nonpartisan, independent U.S. membership organization and think tank founded in 1921 and based in New York, which has published Foreign Affairs since 1922 and takes no institutional positions on policy; Michael Froman has been its 15th president since 2023.Open the full entry; he serves on the University of Chicago board of trustees and the Harvard Medical School board of fellows, and is a committee member of the Biopharmaceutical CEOs Roundtable of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA). He lives in Basel, Switzerland, and chairs African Parks Network.⁠[1][3]

Novartis: Official website: https://www.novartis.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

X: Public account: https://x.com/VasNarasimhan (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vasnarasimhan/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]