Novartis Highlights ESG and Business Performance as a Focused Medicines Company in Novartis in Society Integrated Report 2022
Novartis is a focused medicines company with a purpose to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people’s lives. On February 1, we published our Novartis in Society Integrated Report 2022, which describes how we deliver on our purpose and create long-term value for our stakeholders by embedding environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics into the core of our business strategy and operations.
The report is intended for all Novartis stakeholders, while meeting the needs of ESG professionals through comprehensive and downloadable data on our performance. It contains the following main sections:
- Who we are providing details of our medicines, operations and organizational structure
- Business environment describing trends currently affecting our operating environment
- Strategy and value creation including an overview of our corporate strategy and model for value creation
- Performance in 2022 providing details of our performance against our strategic priorities, including on ESG topics such as access, patient safety and environmental sustainability
- Governance describing our principal governance structures, risk management, internal policies and controls, and approach to executive compensation
2022 HIGHLIGHTS
- A transformational year: Novartis is evolving from a diversified healthcare conglomerate into a focused, innovative medicines company. 2022 was a pivotal year in this journey as we announced our intention to spin off our Sandoz generics and biosimilars business, unveiled a new focused strategy, and put in place a new organizational structure to support innovation, growth and productivity.
- Delivering on our purpose: While Novartis has pursued bold portfolio change over the last several years, our focus on reimagining medicine to improve and extend people’s lives has remained the same. Our medicines reached 743 million patients in 2022 – approximately 236 million through our Innovative Medicines Division, 453 million through Sandoz, and 54 million through Novartis Global Health, which focuses on transforming health in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
- Innovating for patients: Novartis received 23 approvals for new medicines or new indications for existing medicines in the US, EU, Japan and China, including for a new radioligand therapy for a form of advanced prostate cancer in the US and EU. We also advanced our pipeline of investigational treatments, with clinical data readouts paving the way for further launches in 2023 and beyond.
- Solid financial performance: Despite challenging macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions, we delivered a solid financial performance in 2022 that underscores the progress we are making. Group net sales rose by 4% from the previous year when measured in constant currencies to remove the impact of exchange rate movements.
- Innovating in access to medicines: We not only discover and develop new medicines, but also find new ways to deliver them to as many people as possible. In 2022, we increased the number of patients reached in LMICs with our strategic innovative therapies by 26% compared with the prior year, and we became the first pharmaceutical company to contribute an innovative medicine to the Access to Oncology Medicines Coalition to treat chronic myeloid leukemia.
- Addressing critical global health challenges: We pledged USD 250 million for research into new medicines for malaria and neglected tropical diseases such as Chagas disease and leishmaniasis, while also announcing our decision to proceed to Phase III clinical trials for our lead malaria pipeline program
- Driving health equity: We expanded our Beacon of Hope program, which funds research at historically Black medical colleges into how to tackle disparities endemic in the US health system
- Reducing our environmental footprint: We have reduced greenhouse gas emissions from our own operations by 49% since 2016. In 2022, we also introduced environmental sustainability criteria into supplier contracts and started engaging with them to define actions to reduce emissions in our supply chain.
Commenting on the company’s 2022 performance, Novartis Chief Executive Officer Vas Narasimhan said: “This was a pivotal year for Novartis as we made progress in addressing society’s greatest disease burdens while taking steps to reshape our company to accelerate growth and reimagine medicine for decades to come. Our vision is to become the most trusted and valued medicines company in the world – valued not only for our business performance, but also for the difference our innovation makes for patients and society.”
The report has been prepared in alignment with the Integrated Reporting Framework, the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the latest non-financial standards issued by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
Access and download the full report at: reporting.novartis.com
Novartis Media Relations
E-mail: media.relations@novartis.com
This document contains forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. For more information a please see the full Novartis in Society Integrated Report 2022.
