"It strikes me as a deliberate attempt to officially call the end of the Vasella era at Novartis," Florian Wettstein, director of the Institute for Business Ethics at Switzerland's University of St. Gallen, told The Wall Street Journal. If you've been following Novartis news lately, you know those nitty-gritty changes--the disbanding of two board committees that kept Vasella in the loop on M&A deals and executive pay, among other things--are just a small part of the ongoing overhaul there. The Swiss drugmaker sold off its blood diagnostics business, announced a strategic review of its other smaller businesses, and continued a global cost-cutting effort with layoffs, facility closures and consolidations, and more.