MEDIA STATEMENT

Novartis celebrates 20th annual Community Partnership Day with more than 27,500associates volunteering in their local communities

  • More than 27,500 Novartis associates worldwide dedicate an estimated 220,000 hours to volunteer with charitable causes in their communities
  • Community Partnership Day symbolises the company's commitment to improving health and serving its local communities
  • Over 180 UK employees are participating, supporting our local communities

Frimley, April 28, 2016– Today, in celebration of the company’s annual Community Partnership Day, more than 27,500 Novartis associates across 84 countries are supporting local communities, social institutions and nonprofit organizations with projects which emphasize the Novartis commitment to social responsibility. Over 180 UK employees are participating, support local projects varying from sorting charity donations, gardening and decorating at a local school, hosting a tea party at a care home and running a charity car wash.

This year marks the 20th annual Community Partnership Day, which commemorates the 1996 creation of Novartis as a global leader in healthcare, and demonstrates the company’s heritage and commitment to discover new ways to improve and extend people’s lives.

Community Partnership Day gives associates the opportunity to dedicate their work day to volunteer in the local communities where they live and work. Associates are volunteering with local organizations in six continents and 84countries, including the UK, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, France, Malaysia, China, Brazil, Mali, Russia, Slovenia, Taiwan, UAE,Brazil and Finland.

In the UK, employees are participating on the following projects:

  • Hosting a tea party for Surrey Heath Age Concern, a charity working to provide services to enhance the lives of older people in the borough of Surrey Heath
  • Sorting donations at the Just 4 Kids charity shop which raises money to help deaf children in the community
  • Volunteers will help with cutting back bushes, clearing brambles along the side of the canal and removing fences at Blackwater Valley Hawley Meadows
  • Volunteers are working on the following at Carwarden House Community School, a school for young people with learning difficulties

•Decorate the common room so that students have a place to socialise
•Fence sanding and varnishing in the students outside space
•Wash the outside of the outdoor swimming pool
•Tidying the front entrance to the school including cleaning the metal rails
•General gardening
•Painting

  • Volunteers will be sorting through donations and helping to organise registration packs for their upcoming event, Dash of Colour, for thePhyllis Tuckwell Hospice, anadult hospital caring for terminally ill people
  • The UK Alcon team will be washing cars to raise money for Optometry Giving Sight
  • Novartis will be collecting donations for the Just 4 Kids children’s charity
  • Employees at Sittingbourne are running a food bank donation scheme

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 and cost-saving generic pharmaceuticals. Novartis is the only global company with leading positions in these areas. In 2014, the Group achieved net sales of USD 58.0 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 120,000 full-time-equivalent associates. Novartis products are available in more than 180 countries around the world. For more information, please visit

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Novartis Media contacts

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Tel: +44 7920 467679 (Press Office)

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Job bag: COR16-E009

Date of prep: April 16