Breakthroughs only matter when you break down barriers to healthcare. In 2025, our medicines reached 300 million patients, including 30 million through access approaches. Today, that work is being recognized once more.
For the second time in a row, our efforts across the company to expand the reach of innovative medicines were ranked No. 1 against our peers in the 2026 Access to Medicine Index.
We also ranked first across all technical areas assessed – the only company to do so since the Index was first published in 2008. That included a score for R&D almost twice the sector average.
A huge thank you to our teams around the world, and to the many partners we work with, for the commitment and collaboration behind this progress.
"Being ranked first in the Access to Medicine Index for the second consecutive time is an honor, and a recognition of our continued efforts to expand access to healthcare together with our partners. We remain committed to transforming scientific progress into meaningful impact for more patients around the world."
Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis
Five ways Novartis is expanding access to medicines
- Reaching hundreds of millions of patients
In 2025, Novartis medicines reached more than 300 million patients. Of these, we reached 30 million people through access approaches, including 7.3 million through our dedicated Sub-Saharan Africa Business Unit.
- Going further, together in community health
Novartis is expanding community health programs to tackle the growing burden of chronic conditions like cancer and heart disease. These include:
- Inclusive Health Accelerators, bringing screening and care closer to underserved communities in the U.S.;
- Community Health Initiatives in low- and middle-income countries, expanding diagnosis and treatment beyond conventional healthcare channels in hard-to-reach areas;
- CARDIO4Cities by the Novartis Foundation, using data and partnerships to improve cardiovascular health in cities
- Speeding up access and addressing affordability
Novartis is introducing new Emerging Market Brands, innovative medicine brands designed to speed up access and address affordability challenges in low- and middle-income countries.
- Decades of commitment to neglected infectious diseases
Novartis has provided more than 1.1 billion antimalarial treatments, largely without profit, and are pursuing multiple next-generation antimalarials. Through our partnership with the WHO, we have also treated 8.3 million leprosy patients, helping to cut the global burden of the disease by 96% since the 1980s.
- The leading R&D pipeline in global health
Novartis has built one of the industry’s leading pipelines of new treatments for malaria and neglected tropical diseases such as leishmaniasis and dengue fever. This is backed by more than USD 500 million investment in global health R&D since 2021, with discovery work mostly in the U.S. and clinical trials with our partners underway across the world.
