Partnerships
In recent years, Novartis has forged a succession of public-private partnerships and not-for-profit initiatives to help fight diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and leprosy.
Since the year 2000, for example, Novartis has provided free treatment for leprosy patients worldwide in a pioneering collaboration with the WHO. Nearly 4.5 million people with leprosy have been treated through the use of effective multi-drug therapy (MDT) supplied by Novartis. We also provide our anti-malarial drug Coartem® without profit for public sector use in malaria-endemic countries.
We offer discounts and support programs on a broad range of pharmaceutical products to patients in the developed world who lack medical insurance or cannot afford the treatment.
We designed one of the most far-reaching patient assistance programs ever implemented on a global scale for our cancer therapy Gleevec/Glivec®.
Patent protection and access to medicines
The impact of patent protection on patients' access to treatment in developing countries is often exaggerated. Although 95% of the drugs on the WHO's Model List of Essential Drugs are either available off-patent or not patented, a third of the world's population still has no access to essential drugs.
Our Vaccines and Diagnostics division partners with the WHO, UNICEF and others to deliver hundreds of millions of vaccines every year to help protect the next generation from diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus and polio.
We believe that the combination of public-private partnerships, public funding of healthcare delivery systems and appropriate research and development (R&D) financial incentives, will all play important roles in encouraging future drug research in the diseases of poverty, and improving access to medicines worldwide.
Read more about GIPAP, one of the most far-reaching patient assistance programs ever implemented on a global scale.
Read more about our efforts to fight malaria.
Read more about our efforts to eliminate leprosy.
Read more about our efforts to combat tuberculosis.
Read our positions on:
Access to medicines in the developing world ›