Novartis delivered a strong performance in 2023, advancing new treatments for serious diseases and broadening access to our medicines. Our performance highlights the progress we are making in delivering on our purpose to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people’s lives.
The Novartis in Society Integrated Report 2023, published on January 31, describes how we create sustainable value for our stakeholders by embedding material environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics into the core of our business.
It contains comprehensive information and data on our progress in 2023 – including in innovation, access to medicines, advancing gender equity, strengthening our ethical culture, and reducing our impact on the environment.
2023 HIGHLIGHTS
New era for Novartis: 2023 was a historic year for Novartis. With the spin off of our Sandoz generics and biosimilars business largely completing the multiyear transformation of our company, we are now completely dedicated to bringing innovative medicines to the world.Innovation: In 2023, Novartis continued to deliver new medicines to patients. We received 22 approvals in the US, EU, China and Japan, including approval in the US for a new medicine for people living with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, a rare blood disorder. We advanced our pipeline of potential new medicines across our core therapeutic areas —cardiovascular, renal and metabolism; immunology; neuroscience; and oncology—with several late-stage data readouts that set the stage for potential launches in 2024 and beyond. We also invested USD 98.4 million in R&D for neglected tropical diseases and malaria during the year, with progress in key pipeline milestones, putting us on track to meet our commitment to invest USD 250 million over five years from 2021 to 2025.Access to medicines: Ensuring equitable access to innovative medicines is core to our business and our purpose. We implemented global access strategies for all new medicines launched in 2023. We also achieved a 31% increase in patients reached with our strategic innovative therapies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with the previous year, representing an increase of 186% since 2019.People, environmental sustainability and ethics: Fulfilling our aspirations laid out in 2018, we achieved gender balance in management and gender pay equity. We have reduced the environmental footprint of our operations, cutting greenhouse gas emissions (Scopes 1 and 2) by 63%, waste by 66% and water consumption by 50% (all in our own operations; compared with our 2016 baseline). We continued efforts to reinforce integrity across our organization and to foster a business culture in which ethics and compliance take center stage.
Commenting on the company’s 2023 performance, Novartis Chief Executive Officer Vas Narasimhan said: “We continued to deliver on our commitments to broaden access to our innovative medicines, tackle major global health challenges, advance gender equity, and reduce our impact on the environment. Looking ahead, we aim to build on this momentum and bring the same dedication to innovation and excellence to create sustainable value for patients, for society, and for our shareholders.”
The Novartis in Society Integrated Report is intended for all Novartis stakeholders, while meeting the needs of ESG professionals through comprehensive and downloadable data on our performance.
The report was prepared in accordance with Art. 964b of the Swiss Code of Obligations, and in alignment with recommendations and standards issued by the Integrated Reporting Framework, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
Access and download the full report at: novartis.com/investors/reporting-and-transparency-hub/novartis-society-integrated-report
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, please see the full Novartis in Society Integrated Report 2023.