Novartis highlights confidence in growing sales with margin expansion, fueled by in-market brands and a rich pipeline, at Annual Meet the Management investor event

• Novartis showcases unique profile with therapeutic area breadth and depth, exposure to cutting edge platforms and diversification of revenues in terms of assets and geographies

• Key growth drivers now contributing to 48% of Innovative Medicines sales; upcoming launches expected to lay the foundation for future sales expansion

• Advancing leading pipeline based on scale, innovation and value which will fuel growth in the mid- to long-term and help offset patent cliffs

• Committed to driving consistent margin expansion, Innovative Medicines expected to reach high 30s in the mid-term. Target for Novartis Technical Operations productivity program starting in 2021 increased from USD 1.5bn to USD 2bn

• Laying the foundations for sector leadership in the ESG space

• Initiating share buyback of up to USD 2.5bn, highlighting confidence in growth

Basel, November 24, 2020 — Novartis is hosting today its annual Meet Novartis Management event giving investors and industry analysts the opportunity to meet with key executives across the company. The virtual meeting provides a deeper view into the company's progress on its ongoing transformation and growth strategy focused on becoming the leading medicines company powered by data science and advanced therapy platforms.

"Novartis offers a unique profile as a fully focused medicines company with diversification across therapeutic areas and geographies, while providing exposure to cutting-edge platforms. We have delivered strong operational performance, growing the top- and bottom- line and delivering on our commitment to margin expansion. Our rich pipeline continues to advance, and we highlight many assets that show significant promise. Reflecting our confidence in future growth and success of our pipeline, we are initiating a share buyback of up to USD 2.5 billion,” said Novartis CEO, Vas Narasimhan.

Novartis has a leading pipeline based on scale, innovation and future value, including 116 assets in phase I or II, 49 in Phase III or undergoing registration and more than 65 new molecular entities. The pipeline is expected to fuel growth in the mid-to long-term, with around 90 percent potential first-in-class/first-in-indication medicines and about 80 percent of targets in areas of high unmet patient need. The company is strengthening its advanced therapy platforms along the value chain with 20 advanced platform therapies in clinical development alongside a large number of pre-clinical projects. Novartis is also making significant progress on the manufacturing and commercialization of these advanced therapy platforms. The total value of estimated sales of products launched from 2020 to 2026 puts Novartis as number two for pipeline replacement power in the global pharmaceutical industry.