Global standards

With the increasing globalization of science and corporate R&D operations, it was felt at Novartis that our existing policy would be strengthened by the inclusion of practical animal welfare guidelines to ensure a globally coherent system which is binding, particularly in countries where no - or only minimal - animal welfare legislation is in place. To this end, our Global Animal Welfare Organization, which oversees all animal-related activities in our business divisions, worked with external experts to set up a catalog of precise, practical and relevant requirements in the daily care and use of experimental animals. These requirements are enshrined in our Novartis Animal Welfare Standards.

By establishing detailed, practical provisions, ranging from stipulated cage sizes to recommended methods for blood sampling, the standards enable us to take a critical step toward improving animal welfare globally and defining criteria for internal and external supervision. They will be rolled out across our internal and external R&D and Business Units/Marketing operations.

Novartis expects its external partners to apply the same strict standards in all contracts, including currently running contracts as well as for future planned experiments. Compliance will be monitored through external audits using a recently established third party compliance checklist. We are also currently evaluating a database for third party registration and monitoring. This will help us develop a list of 'preferred partners,' i.e. institutions who conduct animal studies in the spirit of our ethical commitment to global animal welfare. In cases of noncompliance, collaborations will be terminated.

The establishment of animal welfare awareness and best practice across all of our business operations is a major task, but one to which we are strongly committed.