Novartis - A trusted partner of Vietnam’s healthcare

Novartis begun its journey in Vietnam since the 1950s through the presence of Sandoz, Ciba-Geigy, and other partners. Over the past 2 decades in the country, Novartis Vietnam has cooperated with the Ministry of Health (MoH) and domestic and international organizations to launch several programs to enhance public health awareness, promote training, and strengthen primary healthcare in many cities and provinces.

In 2008, the representative office of Novartis Pharma Services AG was established Vietnam to promote and support the supply of medicines, and delivery of drugs to patients, as well as clinical trials of Novartis Group. Over the past 14 years, Novartis Vietnam has been focusing on three areas: (i) science-based innovation and clinical trials; (ii) scientific and academic cooperation; (iii) patient access to high-quality, innovative healthcare. The company has collaborated with the MoH to support a strong healthcare system that covers the lowest income segments of the population and to provide the Vietnamese people with high-quality medicines, thus contributing to the MoH’s objective to shape a strong and sustainable healthcare system and to achieve universal healthcare coverage.

In early 2020, Novartis Vietnam Co. Ltd. became the first multinational pharmaceutical company to successfully transform into a foreign-invested enterprise and fully operationalize its import activities. Through long-term commitments Novartis is supporting the domestic healthcare system and contributing to the socio-economic development of the country. Novartis is a leader in innovative medicines across many therapeutic areas: Oncology (Lung cancer, Breast cancer, Hematology, Solid Tumor), Cardiovascular (hypertension, heart failure, diabetes), Respiratory (Asthma, COPD); Ophthalmology (Retina, Glaucoma, External eyes diseases); Pain relief; Neuroscience, Dermatology, Rheumatology and Immunology, Cell and Gene therapy... We are also a leader in high quality generics and biosimilars through our Sandoz unit, and one of the largest investors in clinical trials in Vietnam.

Our commitment in access to medicines

Through our core business – the discovery, development, and marketing of innovative treatments – we have helped prevent and treat diseases, ease suffering and improve quality of life for people worldwide. We are committed to bringing more of our medicines to more people, no matter where they are. For all our new medicines, we will systematically integrate access strategies in how we research, develop and deliver them globally to reach underserved patients no matter where they live. This will be a key measure of success for our leaders and employees.

Our People and Culture

We aim to fundamentally reimagine the way we work and create a culture that brings out the best in our people to fulfill our purpose of reimagining medicine to improve and extend people’s lives. We believe we can drive innovation, performance and reputation – and enhance our people's work experience – by transforming our culture to be more Inspired, Curious and Unbossed.

Developing a multitasking workforce at Novartis with “Choice with Responsibility”
Novartis identifies people as the most valuable resource which determines the success and sustainable development of a business. Therefore, they are increasingly focusing on developing the multi-purpose workforce and helping them improve the ability to identify, evaluate and solve problems in a proactive, flexible, and independent manner.

In order to achieve these goals, "Choice with Responsibility" has refreshed the working style of Novartis employees by shifting the responsibility from manager-approved to manager-informed, which not only helps each employee put greater accountability for his or her work, but also makes the operation smoother when everyone has to work from home.

“Choice with Responsibility” policy also enables employees to arrange time for diverse and customized training programs. Being built on its “Curious” culture, Novartis sets target for each employees to achieve 100 training hours per year. Hence, the company continuously develops comprehensive learning and development programs to help equip its employees with updated knowledge as well as new skills to adapt to rapid changes in the external environment in general and pharmaceutical industry in particular. Especially, the access to these learning courses are also extended to employees’ families and friends.

Gender balance – A fundamental principle of Novartis's employment policy
As a pharmaceutical business with more than 110,000 employees globally, Novartis has always been at the forefront of applying internal policies to maintain and develop a diverse and inclusive culture. This culture is most clearly demonstrated through the Gender Balance policy applied in more than 140 countries where Novartis is operating.

By focusing on achieving gender balance in management by 2023, Novartis aims to positively influence the overall gender pay gay. In addition, Novartis has established a gender strategy with tools to help leadership teams across the organization track their gender representation in both external applicants and current management population, which helps Novartis work toward their aspiration for gender balance.

The successful development and adoption of the Choices with Responsibility work model have also demonstrated Novartis' desire for gender balance. With this operating model, Novartis employees are free to choose how, when, and where to work, helping them balance their work and life actively.

Moreover, Novartis has also implemented many policies that are equitable for the LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex) community and help them to be free to be themselves in the workplace without fear of gender discrimination and sexual orientation.

Novartis pioneers gender-neutral parental leave
Based on the Gender Balance, Parental Leave is one of the most breakthrough policies of Novartis having gained a lot of popularity.

According to the "Parental Leave", all Novartis employees globally can benefit from a minimum period of 14 weeks paid parental leave following the birth, or adaption of a child. Where employees are in countries that currently offer them more than 14 weeks’ paid leave, Novartis will also honor that, for both parents.

By offering the same parental leave to all parents, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, Novartis seeks to promote greater equity for birthing and non-birthing parents. As one of the pioneers in applying maternity leave for adoption, the "Parental Leave" has had a profound impact on the plan as well as become a source of positive motivation for Novartis employees.