Top pharma CEO says preparedness for a new pandemic has not improved

Vas Narasimhan, CEO of pharmaceutical firm Novartis, told CNBC Tuesday that he didn't believe there had been much improvement in preparedness for pandemics in the wake of the Covid crisis.

"I'm sad to say, I don't think we've improved unfortunately," said Narasimhan, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

He explained that there did not appear to be the continued level of investment as hoped for, during this "inter-pandemic" period.

"Now that we're past the pandemic — and really because of the feats of our industry, companies coming up with incredible mRNA vaccines and diagnostic tools— we're back to almost no investment from governments," Narasimhan said.

Without this support, Narasimhan said that companies then also de-invest, with the space potentially lacking investment for 10 to 15 years, and "then we're back in the same place again and a pandemic hits and we're racing."

"Now of course we're getting better and better at the science but ideally we would live in a world where that inter-pandemic preparedness, like we do in defense, like we do in other areas, would continue so we're ready for the next pandemic," he said.    

Narasimhan has previously warned that future pandemics are inevitable and urged investment in pandemic preparedness.