Novartis wins GBCHealth Business Action on Health award

Novartis has won an award for its Arogya Parivar social ventures initiative from GBCHealth, a coalition of more than 230 private sector companies working to improve global health.

The group has presented Novartis with Business Action on Health award for application of core competence in honour of the Indian access to medicines initiative, naming it as one of the world's leading corporate programmes to address global health needs.

Arogya Parivar is a sustainable business model that makes high-quality medicines accessible to poor populations for affordable prices, with 42 million patients across 33,000 villages benefiting from the programme thus far.

Additionally, Novartis has been able to train more than 500 health educators and supervisors through the scheme.

Joe Jimenez, Novartis' chief executive officer, said: "Arogya Parivar is an important part of the work Novartis is doing around the world to develop sustainable solutions that address the unmet medical needs of people in developing nations."

Earlier this month, the company announced its support for Malaria No More's Power of One campaign, which aims accelerate efforts to eradicate the dangerous tropical disease.