KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 – Novartis Malaysia has announced its support of various efforts providing assistance to the government in curbing the Covid-19 outbreak.
A contribution of RM1 million to MERCY Malaysia has been made by the company to procure personal protection equipment (PPE) for frontline healthcare workers, a donation of 10,000 hand sanitizers for medical staff and patients at Hospital Kuala Lumpur, as well as a strong commitment to ensure continuous supply of medicines to patients.
“As a medicines company which has been in Malaysia since 1971 and a committed healthcare partner to the Ministry of Health and patients in Malaysia, we are stepping up to provide broad range support to vulnerable communities and national programs that can help address urgent public health needs resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Patrik Grande, Country President & Managing Director of Novartis Malaysia, in a statement.
The donation to Mercy Malaysia is from its global Novartis Covid19 Response Fund. The amount is expected to “support the much-needed operational supplies of PPEs to a total of 27 government hospitals including one university hospital across the country.”
Separately, the pharmaceutical company also donated 10,000 hand sanitizers to Hospital Kuala Lumpur in response to an urgent plea for critical healthcare items required by medical staff and patients.
Novartis Malaysia also joined two cross-industry research initiatives: the Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, coordinated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard; and a Covid-19 directed partnership organized by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI).
“Novartis is separately supporting COVID-19 related clinical investigations of several Novartis medicines,” said the statement.
“Earlier this month, Sandoz, the company’s generics and biosimilars division was the first company to commit to keeping prices stable for a basket of essential medicines that may help in the treatment of Covid-19, specifically antivirals to reduce the impact of coronavirus and antibiotics to combat pneumonia.”
The company also commenced mitigation plans to ensure ongoing drug supply and smooth operations for its over 500 clinical studies.
