Novartis ceo Dan Vasella met with analysts this morning to review finances and, in a sop to anxious stockholders, agreed to treat them like risk-free coupon clippers. So he says 100 percent of free cash flow, after dividends and acquisitions, could be available for share buybacks, compared with only 50 percent in the past. Right now, Novartis has allocated $4 billion to purchase its own stock.

“There is increased pressure for pharma companies to improve return. If the shareholders aren’t getting it on the share price itself, then a buyback is an alternative option,” Navid Malik, an analyst with Collins Stewart in London, tells Reuters. “I’m not surprised Novartis is trying to appease shareholder concerns at the moment.”

Dan reiterated his belief that Novartis’s pharma unit will return to double-digit percentage sales growth in 2008 through 2011, after mid-single-digit growth expected this year, thanks to new products. But this year’s second half and the first half of 2008 will continue to be hurt by the withdrawal of Zelnorm and generic competition to such products as Lotrel.

Compounding Dan’s problems is the ongoing delay in approval for the Galvus diabetes drug over safety concerns. The med is expected to be launched in Europe by the fourth quarter of this year but won’t be resubmitted to the FDA until 2009. And as for the Cox-2 Prexige painkiller, which was linked to deaths in Australia, “I give you my personal opinion,” says Dan. “I don’t think we will get an approval.” As a result, Novartis stock is down nearly 10 percent this year, Reuters notes.

And so, Dan hinted at layoffs. While praising the “talent base,” he says this is “a great opportunity to look at productivity.”

Looking to drive the crowd wild, Dave Epstein, who heads the oncology division, told the analysts that the Gleevec cancer med had a 94 percent market share in the US during July and August, Thomson Financial reports. In 2006, Gleevec had US sales were $2.6 billion and Novartis predicts combined full-year peak sales with the Tasigna cancer drug of $4 billlion. The drugmaker expects FDA and European approval for Tasigna in the fourth quarter, and in the second half of 2008 in Japan.

Epstein also boasts that the Zometa osteoporosis drug has a 75 percent market share, and sales growth should accelerate beginning in next year’s second half, despite competition. He then predicted that the Femara oncology med should develop into another blockbuster as of next year.