Frequently asked questions

Top 10 social impact and sustainability-related questions from shareholders and our responses

Last updated: November 2025

Access, Global Health, and clinical trial diversity

How do you price your medicines in LMICs, and do you anticipate an impact from the Most Favored Nation (MFN) policy introduced in the US?

• Novartis employs a value-based pricing approach. This approach incentivizes pharmaceutical companies to focus on the interventions that deliver the most effective, efficient, and sustainable outcomes. We believe medicine prices should be based on three value pillars:
  • Patient value, e.g. improvements in efficacy.
  • Value to the healthcare system, e.g. prevented hospitalizations.
  • Value to society as a whole, e.g. increased workforce participation for the patient and caregivers.
• Our access efforts in LMICs are not impacted by the US MFN policy. We remain committed to our access strategies, including adopting innovative pricing and access models (e.g., tiered pricing strategy that takes income levels, local affordability barriers, and economic realities into account), focusing research and development based on society’s greatest healthcare needs, and supporting approaches to strengthen healthcare systems.

With other pharmaceutical companies announcing direct-to-patient (DTP) initiatives in the US, what are Novartis plans in this space?

• We have long recognized the need to remove barriers and complexities in the US healthcare system that delay or prevent access to our medicines.
• We announced plans to launch a DTP platform on November 1, 2025, offering Cosentyx® (a biologic that is FDA-approved for the treatment of multiple immune-mediated inflammatory diseases) at a 55% discount off the list price to cash-paying US patients. This price reflects the average savings that insurers and pharmacy benefit managers receive.
• In the US, Novartis intends to offer a DTP option for additional medicines in its portfolio as appropriate and is exploring a direct-to-business model, selling Cosentyx® and potentially additional medicines, to large employers as another way to increase access and affordability.
• We fully recognize this first iteration of our DTP effort does not solve all the access challenges US patients face. It serves as proof-of-concept for a direct-selling model for specialty medicines and ideally would work alongside insurance to help improve patient affordability.
• For patients who cannot afford the cost of their Novartis medication, are uninsured or have government insurance, and meet income guidelines and other eligibility criteria, the Novartis Patient Assistance Foundation, an independent, non-profit entity, provides Cosentyx® at no cost.

With Novartis patient reach targets related to the sustainabilitylinked bond (SLB) expiring this year, are you planning to announce new social targets?

• Access to medicines is central to our purpose as a focused, innovative medicines company. We believe that measurement is fundamental to understanding our success and we recognize the importance of considering our impact beyond our existing patient reach targets. For example:
  • We track the time it takes for innovative medicines to be introduced in LMICs. In the industry, it typically takes 3 to 8 years for an innovative medicine to become available in an LMIC after its first launch in a developed country. Novartis has successfully reduced this timeframe on average to just 4 to 8 months¹.
• However, establishing meaningful social impact targets presents challenges, including data collection complexities, measurement difficulties, and the absence of established methodologies and industry standards. The establishment of new social targets is an area of ongoing internal discussion, and we will update you on our progress in 2026.
• We remain on track to meet the targets associated with our SLB. As of the end of Q3 2025, we have achieved²:
  • 1.6 million patients reached with strategic innovative therapies in LMICs (vs. 2025 target of 1.6 million patients); and
  • 15.7 million patients reached through our flagship Global Health programs (vs. 2025 target of 22.6 million patients).
• We remain focused on advancing our commitments in these areas and continue to explore ways to define and report clear, outcome-oriented metrics.

In 2022, Novartis initially pledged USD 250m for R&D into neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and malaria, and plans to nearly double this to USD 490m by the end of 2025. What drove this increased commitment?

• Global health is at a critical turning point, with demographic and climate change accelerating the burden of disease, while global funding for R&D from intergovernmental organizations has decreased³. In the past two decades, only 15 novel medicines have been approved for global health diseases, highlighting persistent gaps in drug development for diseases that primarily affect underserved populations⁴.
• In 2023 and 2024, we significantly increased our investment due to the strong potential for breakthrough treatments in our pipeline. We have now built the industry’s largest pipeline of treatments for malaria and neglected tropical diseases.
• The funding is advancing ten new potential treatments⁵, including next-generation malaria medicines with the potential to combat drug resistance, new treatments for Chagas disease and leishmaniasis, and the first antiviral for dengue fever as cases rise sharply around the world.
• The additional funding is new, but our commitment is not. We have been tackling diseases neglected by science, such as malaria and leprosy, for more than 85 years and have distributed more than 1.1bn antimalarial treatments, largely at no profit.
• Novartis is staying the course even as many longstanding donors pull back. We remain committed to global health and are investing to ensure innovation continues for those who need it most.

With dengue and malaria cases rising in developed countries, do your efforts to develop treatments for climate-sensitive diseases present a potential business opportunity?

• Factors such as rising temperatures, extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, and poor air quality contribute to the broader emergence and spread of both infectious and non-communicable diseases.
• Novartis conducted a meta-analysis to assess the projected impact of climate change on disease prevalence. The review shows that our portfolio aligns well with diseases where there is strong evidence of increasing burden, including cardiovascular disease, malaria, dengue, and Chagas disease. Novartis has one of the most extensive pipelines in global health with eight new chemical entities⁶ currently in human trials across five disease areas.
• While there are reports⁷ of increasing prevalence of global health diseases in developed countries, which could theoretically make this a business opportunity for us, our commitment to this area is not driven by business opportunity. Our efforts are driven by our values, purpose and a commitment to long-term resilience.

Can you provide an update on clinical trial diversity efforts in the US (e.g. FDA’s Diversity Action Plans), particularly in light of recent announcements from the US administration?

• In June 2024, the FDA issued draft guidance entitled “Diversity Action Plans (DAPs) to Improve Enrollment of Participants from Underrepresented Populations in Clinical Studies.” The public comment period closed in September 2024. In accordance with the timeline, final guidance was anticipated within nine months of that date, with implementation of DAP submissions to follow 180 days thereafter. As of now, the final guidance has not yet been published.
• While we await further clarity from the FDA, our commitment to ensuring that we understand how patients we aim to treat will respond to a medicine remains steadfast. Novartis continues to prioritize inclusive representation in our clinical studies, ensuring they reflect the populations our investigational products are intended to benefit.
• To support this, we collaborate with representative patient communities on trial design and execution, and we explore innovative, technology-enabled solutions. For example, our Clinical Intelligence Platform (CLIP) integrates epidemiology and real-world data to help achieve our trial representation goals.

Nature and physical climate risks

What were the main findings from your recent nature assessments?

• In 2024, we conducted a nature assessment for our own operations and upstream supply chain using the LEAP⁸ approach developed by the TNFD⁹. Some of our findings are:
  • >50% of our sites are near nature-sensitive areas.
  • Our upstream supply chain comprises the majority of the impacts and is mainly driven by GHG emissions, water use, water pollution, and land use from raw materials.
  • We believe that our existing short and mid-term nature and climate targets¹⁰ address the impacts derived from this assessment. We are currently piloting programs to help address the impact of raw materials sourcing on land use and the creation of biodiversity management plans for selected sites.
• In 2025, using a similar approach, we conducted a downstream nature assessment focused on three topics:
  • Pharmaceuticals in the environment: Most of our active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) have low impact and do not represent an environmental risk; however, we will continue to monitor impacts on this area and progress on our 2030 water quality target, which applies to all API suppliers.
  • Product waste: Except for paper, all other materials (such as product residues and primary packaging materials, including aluminium) are deemed non-recyclable and may pose challenges in terms of landfill accumulation, soil and marine pollution. We will continue to explore expanding downstream waste management initiatives, including packaging design optimization and e-leaflets in line with local regulations.
  • Distribution of products: Impact is considered minimal, accounting for less than 1% of Scope 3 GHG emissions, and this topic is already covered under our Net Zero 2040 strategy.

How do you plan to achieve your water quality targets?

• We know that pharmaceutical residues in water can impact aquatic ecosystems. To address this, we set a 2025 target to eliminate water quality impacts from manufacturing effluents at our own sites and high-risk suppliers, and extended a 2030 target covering our labs and API suppliers.
  • In 2024, this standard was met by 97% of our manufacturing sites (vs. 94% in 2023 and 2022) and 100% of our high-risk suppliers (vs. 88% in 2023, 26% in 2022). For example, we upgraded tertiary wastewater treatment with activated carbon filtration at our manufacturing sites in Slovenia and Romania.
• Key actions driving these achievements include:
  • API risk assessment: Implementing industry best practices via three steps: 1) training and compliance; 2) API loss quantification and risk assessment; 3) ensuring effluents meet safe thresholds¹¹.
  • Engagement with suppliers: Technical assessments, workshops, and supplier reviews to ensure water quality compliance.
  • Compliance monitoring: Ongoing risk assessments, compliance checks, and tracking of corrective actions to prevent non-compliance.

Can you detail the key physical risks identified through your most recent climate-related scenarios analyses?

• We conduct climate-related scenario analyses annually. In 2024, we assessed Novartis operating sites and warehouses for vulnerability to 18 temperature-, water-, and wind-related physical risks across three Shared Socioeconomic Pathway emission scenarios by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in five-year increments until 2050. For example, our analysis identified:
• High or very high exposures to cyclone and flooding events for multiple manufacturing sites, including those in Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, or Japan. As part of our efforts to mitigate these risks, we are implementing targeted water management practices, including the construction of retention basins and enhancements to stormwater drainage systems. We also maintain a vigilant approach to monitoring flooding risks, with a particular focus on the long-term perspective.
• Heat stress is a chronic risk that could affect our sites in particular, with increased needs for cooling and related energy costs. We find this risk to be most pronounced at our manufacturing sites in locations such as Singapore, Egypt, or Indonesia. To mitigate this risk, we are optimizing energy demand by replacing older chillers with more efficient models, installing LED lighting, and implementing active energy management to monitor real-time consumption.

Can you elaborate on your efforts in green chemistry?

• Novartis sees green chemistry as a driver to improve resource efficiency, reduce emissions and waste, and support our 2040 Net Zero ambitions.
• Sustainable design is embedded across our portfolio, using insights from product lifecycle assessments to identify hotspots and optimize processes. We focus on recycling solvents, recovering catalysts, using bio-based or lower-emission alternatives where feasible, and investing in innovative manufacturing technologies like BioFuture¹² for biologics.
• We maintain close collaboration with suppliers and industry peers to share best practices and continuously improve manufacturing efficiency.

1. Information based on internal analysis and IQVIA data for launch dates.
2. Unassured but will be assured at year end.
3. Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). Financing Global Health 2025: Cuts in Aid and Future Outlook. Seattle, WA: IHME, 2025.
4. Innovation in medicines for Global Health: a 20-year landscape analysis. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41573-025-00164-1.
5. KAF156, KAE609, INE963, IWY357, EDI048, EYU688, LXE408 in leishmaniasis, LXE408 in Chagas disease, ITU512, Coartem® Baby.
6. KAF156, KAE609, INE963, IWY357, EDI048, EYU688, LXE408, ITU512.
7. https://www.worldmosquitoprogram.org/en/news-stories/stories/explainer-how-climate-change-amplifying-mosquito-borne-diseases?
8. Locate, Evaluate, Assess, and Prepare.
9. Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures.
10. Climate: By 2025: Carbon neutrality for scope 1 & 2 (vs. 2016). By 2030: More than 90% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions; 42% reduction in Scope 3 emissions (vs. 2022 baseline). By 2040: More than 90% reduction in all scopes (Scope 1, 2, and 3) (vs. 2022 baseline). Water quantity: We aim to reduce water use by 50% by 2025 (vs. 2016), and implement water reduction plans at our own and supplier sites located in water-stressed basins that have potential material impacts on these basins by 2030. Water quality: We aim to achieve no water quality impact from manufacturing effluents by 2025 (for manufacturing sites and high-risk suppliers), expanding to all labs and all API suppliers by 2030. Waste targets: -50% in waste disposal by 2025 (2016 baseline); -30% in waste disposal by 2030 vs. 2022 baseline. Plastic: Eliminate polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in packaging where feasible by 2025.
11. Predicted environmental concentration / Predicted no-effect concentration of <1.
12. BioFuture: Futuristic approach for manufacturing of biologics using continuous, connected, cost-effective and flexible processes transitioning from traditional batch process.

What is the new cost basis of my Novartis and Sandoz shares following the spin-off of Sandoz from Novartis?

Information about allocation of tax basis for U.S. holders may be found in the Form 8937: Basis of Securities (PDF 0.1 MB). With regard to non-U.S. holders, please note that the allocation of tax basis for Novartis and Sandoz shares following the spin-off depend on the applicable local tax provisions and each shareholder’s individual circumstances. Accordingly, all shareholders and ADR holders are asked to consult their own tax advisor regarding the tax basis allocation calculations.

Where are Novartis shares traded?

Novartis shares are listed and traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange (Valor No. 001200526, ISIN CH0012005267, symbol: NOVN) as well as on the NYSE in the form of American Depositary Receipts (ADR) (Valor No. 567514, ISIN US66987V1098, symbol: NVS).

What are the ticker symbols for Novartis?

What is an ADR/ADS?

ADR stands for American Depositary Receipt. ADS stands for American Depositary Share. An ADR is a receipt for a number of shares of a foreign-based corporation held by a US depositary bank, entitling the ADR holder to all dividends and capital gains.

What is the number of outstanding shares in Novartis?

Key Novartis share data

1. Approximately 86 million treasury shares (2023: 94 million 2022: 99 million) are held in Novartis entities that restrict their availability for use.

What is the number of outstanding ADRs in Novartis?

Key data on ADRs issued in the US

1. The depositary, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., holds one Novartis AG share for every ADR issued.

When is your dividend going to be paid?

The dividend payment date has been set for March 13, 2025.

What is the dividend history for Novartis shares?

Shareholders approved the 28th consecutive dividend increase per share since the creation of Novartis in 1996, with an increase of 6.1% to CHF 3.50 per share for 2024.

Learn more about dividend information

What is the new cost basis of my Novartis and Alcon shares following the spin-off of Alcon from Novartis?

Information about allocation of tax basis for U.S. holders may be found in the Form 8937: Basis of Securities (PDF 0.1 MB). With regard to non-U.S. holders, please note that the allocation of tax basis for Novartis and Alcon shares following the spin-off depend on the applicable local tax provisions and each shareholder’s individual circumstances. Accordingly, all shareholders and ADR holders are asked to consult their own tax advisor regarding the tax basis allocation calculations.

What are the income tax implications to Canadian shareholders due to the Alcon spin-off?

The following documents include the Finance Canada and Canada Revenue Agency comfort letter, Canada income tax guidelines and tax election letters related to the Alcon Spin-off for Canadian resident shareholders:

Canada Income Tax Alcon Spin-off FAQ - English (PDF 0.1 MB)

Canada Income Tax Alcon Spin-off FAQ- French (PDF 0.1 MB)

Department of Finance Canada Comfort Letter (PDF 0.1 MB)

Download the Canada and Quebec Tax Election Example Letters (ZIP 0.1 MB)

What is the amount and timing of the next dividend payment?

A dividend of CHF 3.50 per share was approved at the Annual General Meeting that was held on March 07, 2025. The dividend will be paid as from March 13, 2025. The last trading day with entitlement to receive the dividend was March 10, 2025. As from March 11, 2025, the shares are traded ex-dividend.

Is the dividend on the Novartis ordinary share and the Novartis ADR the same?

Yes, however, since ADR holders will receive their dividend in US dollars, the amount received will be impacted by currency exchange rates, as well as by a handling fee (historically, $0.01 per share) associated with the ADR dividend. An estimate of the amount of the US dollar dividend for the ADR will be calculated on the day of the dividend announcement based on that day’s exchange rates. The actual exchange rate will be determined once all funds are received and exchanged by J.P. Morgan, the depositary bank.

Will the rate recently announced for the ADRs change between now and the ADR payment date?

Yes, the preliminary announcement only provides an estimated rate based on a current FX rate. The actual rate will be determined when the Swiss francs are converted to US dollars once all the funds are received by J.P. Morgan.

Will the dividend on the Novartis ADR be paid out on the Swiss payment date of March 13, 2025?

No, the dividend on the Novartis ADR will be paid out only after a tax reclaim has been completed and once any such reclaimed funds have been received by J.P. Morgan from the Swiss Tax Authorities. Once the funds are received and converted into US dollars a payment will be made shortly thereafter to any ADR holders entitled thereto. The ADR Payment date is estimated to be on or around April 23, 2025.

Will the entire dividend amount be converted into US dollars after the Swiss tax reclaim has been completed?

No. On the Swiss payment date 65% of the dividend is received by JP Morgan. This amount will be converted into US dollars at or after such time.

Why can’t J.P. Morgan receive all of the funds on the Swiss payment date?

The Swiss Tax Authorities require that a tax reclaim be completed prior to each payment for any amounts due above and beyond the non-treaty amount. Investors must certify and elect their entitlement and provide necessary disclosure documentation as required by the treaty between the US and Switzerland based upon their tax status.

Why is there a delay to get the reclaim funds back from the Swiss Tax Authorities?

Holders of ADRs entitled to receive the dividend are not able to elect until after the ADR record date which is just one (1) day prior to the Swiss payment date. Eligible holders of ADRs are given 10 days to complete and submit their election. Once any reclaims are submitted to the Swiss Tax Authorities it takes approximately 15 days for such authorities to process the reclaim.

When will the final/definitive rate and ADR Payment Date be determined?  

The final/definitive rate and ADR Payment Date will be determined once all of the funds that comprise the dividend are received by J.P Morgan and converted into US dollars.  

Will another announcement be made once the tax reclaim funds are received?

Yes, once all the funds have been received and converted, and the final/definitive rate is determined, a new announcement will be made by J.P Morgan.

How does the tax reclaim process work?

There is a process for banks and brokers within Depositary Trust Company to elect their clients’ correct tax status electronically and to provide documentation on behalf of their clients. J.P. Morgan elects on behalf of registered holders based upon their tax status. Please contact J.P. Morgan / GlobeTax Services Inc.  in New York at phone: +1 212 747 9100 or email: [email protected] for further questions.