Novartis Pharma Principles and Practices for Professionals: NP⁴

The Novartis Pharma Principles and Practices for Professionals (NP⁴) Policy is a set of principles, standards and guidelines designed to ensure responsible behavior of all associates to support our mission “to discover, develop and successfully market innovative products to prevent and cure diseases, to ease suffering and to enhance the quality of life.” It serves as a guide to ethical business practices in Novartis Pharma and supports our ambition to do business with integrity.

The intent of NP⁴ is to secure the credibility and integrity of Novartis in worldwide healthcare by ensuring that interactions with healthcare professionals and the general public are conducted in an ethical and balanced manner, supported by accurate and relevant information, in accordance with local regulations.

NP⁴ defines global minimal standards for the most common practices. In addition, any practice must comply with all applicable international and national law and industry codes, as well as with local Novartis Pharma standards.

All Novartis Pharma interactions with healthcare professionals and patients must be in line with patients' benefit and enhancement of the practice of medicine and be legal, decent, honest and truthful. Information provided to customers and consumers must take into account their needs for such information and their ability to understand it.

Novartis acknowledges the independence of healthcare professionals and believes that no financial benefit or benefit in kind should be offered or provided in a manner that might exert inappropriate influence on the prescribing practices of healthcare professionals. Promotional efforts must, in quantity and quality, support the correct use of our products and their competitive establishment in local markets. They must be ethical, in good taste and must take local cultural factors, possible international implications and global regulatory requirements into account. Promotion should not make recourse to exaggerated and misleading claims or omissions.

Novartis will only sponsor congresses, symposia and other medical/healthcare and educational programs where the primary objective of such meetings is of a scientific nature and our involvement is clearly disclosed. Hospitality of meetings must be appropriate and secondary to the main purpose of the meeting. Promotional aids, where offered, must be modest and relevant to the practice of the healthcare professional. Gifts for personal benefit and personal incentives to induce healthcare professionals to prescribe and purchase our products are prohibited. Likewise, disguised or misleading promotion is not permitted.

Download the the Novartis Pharma Principles and Practices for Professionals (NP⁴) Policy
(192 KB)

 

Back to top