Novartis Releases Novartis in Society 2018 Report

Feb 4, 2019 8:00 AM ET

For the sixth consecutive year, Novartis is publishing an annual Novartis in Society report (formerly our Corporate Responsibility Report).

The report is divided into four chapters based on our corporate responsibility (CR) material clusters and the global health and CR strategic priorities: holding ourselves to the highest ethical standards; being part of the solution on pricing and access; addressing global health challenges; and being a responsible citizen. In each chapter, readers will find more focused and contextual information about the priority topics arising from our CR materiality assessment.

The report has been prepared in accordance with the GRI Standards: Core option.  And it supplements the CR chapter in the 2018 Novartis Annual Review and the 2018 Novartis Annual Report.

In 2018, we were proud to be ranked #2 in the Access to Medicine Index, and to again be included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (#4) and the DJSI Europe Index. Novartis was also included in several reputation and innovation rankings, including the Thomson Reuters Diversity & Inclusion Index (#2), the Nature Index (#3), the Pharmaceutical Innovation Index (#3) and PatientView’s reputation survey (#4). And we were recognized as one of the most sustainable corporations (#64) by Corporate Knights, one of the World's Most Innovative Companies (#1 in biotech and #21 overall) by Fast Company and one of the most admired pharmaceutical companies (#3) by Fortune. 

2018 Highlights

  • Reached approximately 24 million patients through access programs, and 17 million people with training, health education and service delivery programs 
  • Began implementation of the Novartis Access Principles
  • Delivered almost 2.3 million monthly treatments for chronic diseases to Cameroon, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda through Novartis Access
  • Decided to stop filing patent applications in nine low- and middle-income countries
  • Delivered nearly 900 million malaria treatments, including 370 million pediatric treatments, without profit to malaria-endemic countries since 2001
  • Committed to invest USD 100 million over the next five years to advance R&D of new antimalarials
  • Rolled out a new principles-based Professional Practices Policy to guide our interactions with external stakeholders
  • Set new and ambitious environmental targets for 2030, including being carbon neutral by 2025, and plastic and water neutral by 2030
  • Joined the UN Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC)
  • Became the first major pharmaceutical company to support the UN workplace standards protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex rights

Download the Novartis in Society 2018 report
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For more information on our corporate responsibility activities, visit our website.

Novartis Media Relations
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E-mail: media.relations@novartis.com

Read the Report