Access to healthcare
Access to healthcare is a global challenge. As a healthcare company, our primary contribution is to discover and develop new products to prevent and cure diseases, to ease suffering and to improve quality of life.
No single company — no matter how committed to patients — can bridge the access gap. Improving access to healthcare is a goal Novartis shares with governments, international agencies such as the World Health Organization, foundations and nongovernmental organizations. Barriers to access can be overcome only with effective and coordinated action by all parties involved, and working together, we can achieve our common goal.
Poor healthcare for women and children is a serious issue in many countries because of the distance to health facilities, inability to pay or a simple lack of availability. Novartis works to address this multifaceted problem in many ways, including research, training community health workers, using mobile and other information technology to assist diagnosis and treatment, and implementing stock control measures at rural clinics to ensure medicines are available when needed.
At Novartis, enhancing access begins with medical research, continues with product donations and new business models, and is supported by action to strengthen healthcare in both developing and advanced economies. In 2011, our access-to-medicine contributions and programs were valued at USD 1.7 billion and reached 89 million patients globally. Millions more purchased high-quality, low-cost generics from our Sandoz Division.
