• GBCHealth recognizes Novartis Arogya Parivar (“Healthy Family”) initiative as one of the best corporate programs to address global health needs

• Arogya Parivar has improved access to medicine for 42 million patients across 33,000 villages in India

• This program is a Novartis social venture, building local, sustainable solutions to address healthcare challenges in emerging markets

Novartis is pleased to announce that GBCHealth, a coalition of more than 230 private sector companies working to improve global health, has awarded the company’s Arogya Parivar program the Business Action on Health Award for Application of Core Competence. Arogya Parivar is a sustainable business model that makes affordable, high-quality medicines accessible to underserved millions in India. The program also expands access to health education and consultations in remote villages.

“We are proud to be recognized by GBCHealth for our Arogya Parivar program," said Joe Jimenez, Novartis Chief Executive Officer. “Arogya Parivar is an important part of the work Novartis is doing around the world to develop sustainable solutions that address the unmet medical needs of people in developing nations. Through our social ventures programs, we’re making a difference by encouraging better health and at the same time driving local economic growth. We expect Arogya Parivar to have an enduring impact in India and look forward to extending the model to other developing economies.”

Arogya Parivar, meaning “Healthy Family” in Hindi, is a for-profit social business developed by Novartis that adapts a market-based approach to improve healthcare access for India’s rural poor. Novartis trains health educators, who teach communities about health and disease prevention, and sales supervisors, who increase local medicine access across several therapeutic areas by informing local pharmacists about products. Since launching Arogya Parivar in 2007, Novartis has trained more than 500 health educators and supervisors and improved access to healthcare for 42 million patients across 33,000 villages in India. As a result of the positive impact of Arogya Parivar, Novartis is working to further expand the social business model in 2014.

Arogya Parivar is one example of a Novartis “social venture” approach. Social ventures build local, sustainable solutions to address healthcare challenges in emerging markets. These programs go beyond medicine, donations, and price reductions, by tackling larger societal issues that impact access to healthcare: education, infrastructure and distribution. With each social venture, Novartis adapts its approach to meet diverse local health and cultural needs.

To learn more about Novartis Social Ventures, please visit http://www.novartis.com/corporate-responsibility/access-to-healthcare/our-key-initiatives/index.shtml.

Disclaimer

This press release contains expressed or implied forward-looking statements, including statements that can be identified by terminology such as “expect,” ”look forward to,” or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of the Group regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such statements. These expectations could be affected by, among other things, risks and factors referred to in the Risk Factors section of Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update it in the future.

About Novartis

Novartis provides innovative healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, eye care, cost-saving generic pharmaceuticals, preventive vaccines and diagnostic tools, over-the-counter and animal health products. Novartis is the only global company with leading positions in these areas. In 2012, the Group achieved net sales of USD 56.7 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to approximately USD 9.3 billion (USD 9.1 billion excluding impairment and amortization charges). Novartis Group companies employ approximately 129,000 full-time-equivalent associates and operate in more than 140 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com.

Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at http://twitter.com/novartis.

Novartis Media Relations

For Novartis multimedia content, please visit www.thenewsmarket.com/Novartis
For questions about the site or required registration, please contact: journalisthelp@thenewsmarket.com.

Novartis Investor Relations

Novartis

Novartis

Novartis is an innovative medicines company. Every day, we work to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people’s lives so that patients, healthcare professionals and societies are empowered in the face of serious disease. Our medicines reach more than 250 million people worldwide.

More from Novartis