Pharmaceuticals, the ‘right to health’ and access

The duty to respect all human rights, such as freedom from forced or child labor, equal opportunities or freedom of association, applies to companies from all industry sectors.

Pharmaceutical companies competing with integrity will consider human rights issues that may arise within their operations, along their supply chains and in the wider society in which they operate. Human rights are cross-cutting issues which affect all areas of our business, from the research and development of medicines, to their manufacture, distribution and administration.

As a leading supplier of healthcare products, among the human rights issues of particular pertinence to Novartis are issues of patient ‘safety’, ‘privacy’, ‘informed consent’ and ‘fairness’ associated with clinical trials, particularly among poor or developing country populations. All our clinical trials are conducted in accordance with the ethical principles embodied in the Declaration of Helsinki.

Novartis also recognizes that the pharmaceutical industry can contribute, alongside states and non-governmental actors, to wider development goals through treating patients and preventing disabilities and pre-mature mortality. Pharmaceutical companies face growing societal expectations as to the role they should play in relation to the right to health, notably in improving access to medicines our core competence. The issues in this context are intellectual property, medicines pricing and research into neglected diseases.

Addressing such challenges is complex and requires more resources than a single company or industry can deliver. Together with the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development, we are actively exploring what role the private sector can play with regard to pricing policies for patented, life-saving medication. Our free-of-charge provision of Gleevec®/Glivec® – a life-saving drug against certain forms of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) or gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) – to patients living in poverty, is a notable example. So is our comprehensive commitment against leprosy: Novartis donates all drugs necessary to fight this biblical disease in all countries of the world. The Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases, meanwhile, is conducting research into unmet medical needs and neglected tropical diseases, such as dengue fever, tuberculosis and malaria.

Within the pharmaceutical sector, Novartis has made a leading conceptual and practical contribution to advancing the right to health by improving the affordability, accessibility and appropriateness of medicines. We are also engaged in efforts to develop sector-specific human rights tools, along the lines of the Human Rights Compliance Assessment.

Learn more on the clinical trials

Discover the the Declaration of Helsinki

Learn more on Novartis Access to medicine

Visit the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development website

Visit the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases website

 

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