Fighting Falsified Medicines – The Novartis Way

Continuing our series of articles on the strategic perspectives of leading brands in their fight against fakes, this month we turn our attention to Novartis, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, and the fourth largest in terms of revenue in 2022.

Novartis’ product categories include innovative medicines, generic medicines and biosimilars. It is consistently listed as one of the top five companies on the Access to Medicines Index, which ranks companies according to how well they make products accessible and affordable in low- and middle- income countries.

Novartis’ cross-functional Anti-Falsified Medicines Working Group, established in 2017, manages the company’s activities in combatting falsified and counterfeit medical products. It also has a China Anti-Counterfeiting Working Group to accelerate efforts in this strategically important country. Novartis is among the few companies reporting its anti-counterfeiting efforts in annual reports ¹.

Its strategy is focused on two areas: rapid authentication and reporting of falsified medicines, and collective action.