February 14, 2005: At the end of each year, the editors of Chemical & Engineering News – a weekly magazine from the American Chemical Society – publish their “Chemistry Highlights”. They take a look back at the developments that they have reported on during the year and review some of the most significant achievements made in chemistry by researchers in academia, government, and industry.

They especially seek to identify long-sought or surprising breakthroughs, first-of-a-kind achievements, and findings of potentially wide-ranging influence. This time they have found about 45 developments reported in 2004 that they believe meet those criteria.

In the “Chemistry Highlights 2004” issue, Novartis was the only pharma company   that made the list in the drug research section: Stuart J. Mickel of Novartis Pharma Basel and coworkers are recognized for the development of anticancer agent (+)-discodermolide.
 

This is what the article says about their discovery:
 

DRUG RESEARCH. The first industrial-scale total synthesis of the promising anticancer agent (+)-discodermolide, which has a mechanism of action similar to that of paclitaxel (Taxol), was developed by principal scientist Stuart J. Mickel of Novartis Pharma, Basel, Switzerland, and coworkers, based in part on two earlier total syntheses [Org. Process Res. Dev., 8, 92, 101, 107, 113, and 122 (2004)]. "It's probably the best piece of synthetic work to come out from an industrial company," commented Steven V. Ley of the University of Cambridge. The new total synthesis makes it possible to produce discodermolide in quantities sufficient for clinical trials. Formerly, it could only be obtained from a marine sponge harvested with the help of manned submersibles.