Published 07-09-14
Submitted by Novartis
Novartis has published a Corporate Responsibility (CR) Performance Report for 2013. The report reflects the best-in-class reporting standard, the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) G4 guidelines, one year in advance of required implementation.
“Our corporate responsibility work is embedded in our business strategy, which is to use science-based innovation to improve patient health around the world. This would not be possible without ensuring trust among our stakeholders,” said Joseph Jimenez, Chief Executive Officer of Novartis. “We understand and respect the need to build trust through greater transparency and disclosure.”
The Performance Report enhances the company’s transparency in several key areas, including in human resources, supply chain and ethics, and aims to meet the needs and expectations of CR professional audiences by offering easy access to key data. The report also details progress against Novartis priorities, defined following a CR materiality analysis completed in 2013.
“We are proud of our progress in 2013 to help improve access to medicine and do business in a responsible way,” said Juergen Brokatzky-Geiger, Global Head of Corporate Responsibility. “We take this responsibility very seriously – because it’s the right thing to do for society and the right thing to do for our business.”
The company has a strong history of CR activities, and transparent reporting is a central part of our commitment to corporate responsibility. Novartis has publicly reported on our performance in this area since 2000 through its Annual Report and several online and printed materials. The 2013 CR Performance Report consolidates information previously published in our separate GRI; Health, Safety and Environment; and United Nations Global Compact reports. In 2013, Novartis made a number of changes to ensure more oversight of CR, including expanding the mandate of a Board of Directors committee to oversee corporate responsibility strategy and governance at the highest levels of the company.
The GRI’s fourth generation of CR reporting guidelines, G4, were launched in May 2013. They emphasize the need for companies to focus on the process of identifying topics that are material for corporate responsibility in their specific business and among their key stakeholders.
Highlights of Novartis achievements in 2013 include:
Find out more about our corporate responsibility activities online at www.novartis.com/corporate-responsibility/index.shtml.
Disclaimer
This press release contains expressed or implied forward-looking statements, including statements that can be identified by terminology such as “strategy,” “aims,” “commitment,” “committed,” “launched,” 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, over-the-counter and animal health products. Novartis is the only global company with leading positions in these areas. In 2013, the Group achieved net sales of USD 57.9 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to approximately USD 9.9 billion (USD 9.6 billion excluding impairment and amortization charges). Novartis Group companies employ approximately 135,000 full-time-equivalent associates and sell products in more than 150 countries around the world. For more information, please visit www.novartis.com.
Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at twitter.com/novartis.
For Novartis multimedia content, please visit www.thenewsmarket.com/Novartis.
For questions about the site or required registration, please contact: journalisthelp@thenewsmarket.com.
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