Novartis announces the appointment of the Chairman-Designate of Sandoz Board of Directors

• Gilbert Ghostine, CEO of the Swiss multi-national fragrances business Firmenich appointed Chairman-Designate of the future Sandoz Board
• Mr Ghostine to begin role as Sandoz Chairman following the spin-off from Novartis

Basel, February 20, 2022 — Novartis Board of Directors announced today the appointment of Gilbert Ghostine as Chairman-designate of the new Board of Directors of Sandoz.
Mr. Ghostine has served as CEO of Geneva-based Firmenich, the world’s largest privately owned perfume and taste company, since 2014.

Gilbert Ghostine will become Chairman of the New Board of Directors of Sandoz, which will be formed following the spin-off from Novartis in the second half of 2023, subject to final Novartis Board of Directors and shareholder approvals.

Mr. Ghostine is an experienced business leader with a track record of growing and transforming businesses in competitive industries. He held executive and senior leadership positions at Firmenich and Diageo in a career spanning three decades. He currently serves on two boards of directors; at Danone, where he is a member of the audit committee, and at Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, where he chairs the remuneration and nomination committee. He holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from Saint Joseph University, Lebanon and completed Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.

Disclaimer
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by words such as “potential,” “can,” “will,” “plan,” “may,” “could,” “would,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “seek,” “look forward,” “believe,” “committed,” “investigational,” “pipeline,” “launch,” or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential marketing approvals, new indications or labeling for the investigational or approved products described in this press release, or regarding potential future revenues from such products. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that the investigational or approved products described in this press release will be submitted or approved for sale or for any additional indications or labeling in any market, or at any particular time. Nor can there be any guarantee that such products will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, our expectations regarding such products could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; global trends toward health care cost containment, including government, payor and general public pricing and reimbursement pressures and requirements for increased pricing transparency; our ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; the particular prescribing preferences of physicians and patients; general political, economic and business conditions, including the effects of and efforts to mitigate pandemic diseases such as COVID-19; safety, quality, data integrity or manufacturing issues; potential or actual data security and data privacy breaches, or disruptions of our information technology systems, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG’s current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Sandoz 
Sandoz, a Novartis division, is a global leader in generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars. Our purpose is to pioneer access for patients by developing and commercializing novel, affordable approaches that address unmet medical needs. Our ambition is to be the world’s leading and most valued generics company. Our broad portfolio of high-quality medicines, covering major therapeutic areas, accounted for 2022 sales of USD 9.2 billion. Find out more at https://www.Sandoz.com 

Sandoz on social media: 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sandoz
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sandoz_global
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandozglobal/ 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandozglobal  

About Novartis
Novartis is reimagining medicine to improve and extend people’s lives. We deliver high-value medicines that alleviate society’s greatest disease burdens through technology leadership in R&D and novel access approaches. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently rank among the world’s top companies investing in research and development. About 106,000 people of more than 140 nationalities work together to bring Novartis products to nearly 800 million people around the world. Find out more at https://www.novartis.com

Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at https://twitter.com/novartisnews
For Novartis multimedia content, please visit https://www.novartis.com/news/media-library
For questions about the site or required registration, please contact media.relations@novartis.com

# # #