For the fifth consecutive year, Novartis is publishing an annual Corporate Responsibility (CR) Report. The report is divided into four chapters based on our CR material clusters: access to healthcare, innovation, patient health and safety and ethical business practices. Each chapter provides readers with focused information on our approach and performance in each of these areas.
The report has been prepared in accordance with the GRI Standards: Core option. And it supplements the CR chapter in the Novartis 2017 Annual Report.
In 2017, we were proud to be ranked No. 4 on Fortune Magazine’s “Change the World” list, which recognized companies that have a positive social impact through activities that are part of their core business strategy. We were also ranked fourth in the 2017 Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) World, and we re-entered the DJSI Europe for the first time in four years. We were again recognized as one of the world’s most sustainable companies by Corporate Knights, and we were one of 73 companies worldwide to make CDP’s Water “A” List. Novartis was also ranked No. 2 on Fortune’s 2017 “World’s Most Admired Companies” list for the pharmaceutical industry, and we were included in the FTSE4Good Index.
Highlights of Novartis CR achievements in 2017 include:
• Provided medicine to approximately 46 million patients through access programs, as well as health education, infrastructure development and other programs to another 15 million people worldwide
• Delivered more than 800 000 Novartis Access treatments for chronic diseases to Kenya, Lebanon, Ethiopia and Cameroon since program launch in 2015, each providing one-month supply of medicine
• Delivered 850 million malaria treatments, including 350 million pediatric treatments, without profit to malaria-endemic countries since 2001
• Launched Better Hearts Better Cities, a Novartis Foundation initiative to address the high rates of hypertension in low-income urban communities
• Partnered with Last Mile Health to support the launch of the Community Health Academy
• Partnered with the American Cancer Society and the American Society for Clinical Pathology to improve the management of cancer in sub-Saharan Africa
• Launched a patient trial in Africa for our next-generation antimalarial, KAF156
• Invested USD 22 million in research for neglected and tropical diseases
• Trained almost 115 000 Novartis associates worldwide on our Code of Conduct
• Increased our compliance country and monitoring visits by approximately 40% vs 2016