2021 highlights

766 m

Patients reached

with Novartis medicines

21

Major approvals
(US, EU, Japan, China)

including two new molecular entity approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

71 bn

Treatments supplied

through Novartis facilities

51.6 bn

Net sales (USD)

growing 4% in constant currencies from 2020

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Who we are

Novartis reimagines medicine to improve and extend people’s lives. Our medicines, which reached 766 million patients around the world in 2021, address most major disease areas, from cancer to heart disease to rare genetic disorders.

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Research & development wheel (Graphic)

How we create value

By executing on our strategy and delivering on our purpose, we create value for our business and improve the lives of millions of people around the world.

Our strategy
How we create value – What we do (Graphic)
Value created Learn more

Our impact on the world remains extraordinary, with 766 million patients reached in 2021

Vas Narasimhan Chief Executive Officer of Novartis
See the CEO’s letter

Our strategy and performance

Our strategy is to build a focused medicines company powered by technology leadership in research and development, world-class commercialization, global access and data science.
See more about our strategy here. Or read about our financial performance and performance against our five strategic priorities below.

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Photo stories

Improving heart health through digital technology

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death in China. AI Nurse is a digital health app, the result of a collaboration between Novartis and Tencent, that leverages the WeChat social media platform to make it easier for patients with heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases to manage disease progression.

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Photo stories

On the frontline in the fight against malaria

For decades, Novartis has been involved in the fight against malaria, a disease that causes hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide, most of them in children, despite it being treatable and curable. In Nigeria, Novartis is working with a local partner to drive greater awareness of disease prevention and to train local medicine vendors how to diagnose and treat common childhood illnesses like malaria.

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Photo stories

A Novartis employee finds
her true self

In the mid-1990s, Skye Towers – a Novartis employee based in our Dublin office – realized she didn’t feel comfortable in her own skin. The transition to become Skye took many years, but she succeeded in overcoming the private and public challenges involved in changing gender. Today, she is helping others who want to follow a similar path.

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Key figures comparison

The interactive key figures comparison lets you compare key values over the past two years.

Novartis key performance indicators (Graphic) View data

Annual reporting suite

Read and download PDF versions of the Annual Report and Form 20-F, and the Novartis in Society Integrated Report.

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