Hudson has gained his footing running Novartis' pharma business. Now, he's preparing to launch seven new drugs by 2020 while growing Cosentyx, Entresto and other in-line products.

The big pharma financial reporting season gets underway on July 19 with Novartis and Johnson & Johnson in the vanguard. Biosimilar threats to immunology and cancer drugs and new product ramp-ups are among the key things to watch for as results are announced.

Drug pricing has become the most contentious issue in the pharma world over the last two years as politics has dragged the subject into the mainstream conversation. Yet, even those within the industry have different ideas on how the problem can be fixed.