Right to health

Against a background of persistent mass poverty and its associated diseases, global pharmaceutical companies are increasingly confronted with demands relating to the right to health. Through the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development, our independent foundation with over 25 years experience in development cooperation and corporate responsibility, we have been addressing concrete challenges and advancing the debate.

Health is a fundamental human right, indispensable for the exercise of other human rights. The right to health is set out in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and specified in Article 12 of the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which states that every human being is entitled to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health conducive to living a life in dignity.

As a leading supplier of healthcare products, Novartis has concentrated efforts on analyzing what the right to health means in relation to access to treatment and appropriate healthcare, particularly for poor people in developing countries. In 2004, the Executive Committee of Novartis issued a position statement on the right to health.

Together with our Foundation, we are actively exploring what the role of the private sector should be in achieving these aims, notably with regard to pricing policies for patented life-saving medication.

As part of its commitment to improving access to medicines, Novartis has undertaken, in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO), to provide leprosy drugs free of charge until the disease has been eliminated.

Since signing the Global Compact, we have agreed to a differential pricing system in which we provide Coartem® to the WHO at cost in order to treat patients in the poorest countries. Coartem is one of the most effective malaria drugs available globally, with cure rates of up to 95% even in areas of multi-drug resistance. We have also partnered with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, through which we provide tuberculosis drugs free of charge.

Enforcing the right to health is not just about the cost of treatment and medication, however. Despite the fact that approximately 95% of the drugs listed in the WHO Essential Drugs List are patent-free and highly cost-effective, they are still unavailable locally in many countries. Of equal importance is the creation of a viable and comprehensive system of functional healthcare facilities and services adapted to the local environment.

Through the efforts of the Foundation, Novartis is involved in improving the quality of diagnoses and treatment for poor people in developing countries by training healthcare workers, ensuring the provision of adequate facilities and buildings and by setting up a health insurance scheme and a social marketing campaign aimed at changing attitudes toward health. These efforts aim to improve quality of life and to make a greater contribution to social and economic development.

In 2007, Novartis will continue to support ongoing conceptual work on a business perspective on the right to health. With regard to access to medicines, we will expand on our existing partnership with the WHO for Coartem delivery and establish a program of malaria research in cooperation with the Wellcome Trust, Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).

For more information on our efforts to enhance patient access, see access to medicines.

Read our position on The Right to Health.