Parts of Cameroon have rates of epilepsy that are among the highest in the world. Despite the availability of effective therapies, poverty, a lack of medical resources and superstition about the causes of epilepsy often lead to inadequate treatment and social exclusion for people living with the neurological condition. Novartis is working with a Catholic mission on the ground in a central part of the country to overcome these barriers and improve care.

Photos: Bjoern Myhre, Novartis

Shanelle Gabriel was diagnosed with lupus — a chronic autoimmune disease that mostly affects women of African American and Hispanic descent — while she was at college. Today, as a singer, poet and advocate, she uses her voice to highlight challenges faced by people living with this complex and often misunderstood condition.

Photos: Brent Stirton, Getty Images for Novartis

When Laurie Brunner found a lump in her breast just before Thanksgiving in 2018, it was the beginning of one of the most difficult periods of her life. Although treatment put her cancer into remission, she found herself dealing with an emotional toll that affects many survivors of early-stage breast cancer: the fear of it coming back.

Photos: Brent Stirton, Getty Images for Novartis

Novartis is aiming for water neutrality in our own operations by 2030. In India, we are contributing to this goal through a project near Hyderabad with a nonprofit organization. By tackling both water scarcity and the deprivation it causes, the project has revived the community.

Photos: Bjoern Myhre, Novartis

As part of the Beacon of Hope initiative, the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, offers 10-week paid summer fellowships for students at Historically Black Medical Schools to gain experience in drug discovery, data analytics and clinical research practices - with the goal of training up to 250 scientific leaders over 10 years.

After being diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, Van Lacour received a Novartis radioligand therapy as part of a managed access program in 2021. Today, he is living a fulfilling life in his hometown of Natchez, Louisiana, US.

Alexandra Cossio Duque, a clinical and community research coordinator from Colombia, has travelled the world to study how to overcome social and geographic barriers to healthcare access. Today, she is working in her home country to strengthen the capacity of health systems to treat leishmaniasis, a neglected tropical disease that is endemic to rural areas of Colombia.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the US, claiming one in four lives. Social factors such as living conditions, education and diet play a key role in determining a person’s heart health, which means cardiovascular disease typically hits vulnerable communities the hardest. Our three-year Closing the Gap initiative with the Jefferson Collaborative for Health Equity (established by Jefferson Health and Thomas Jefferson University) focuses on addressing the upstream social determinants of heart health in five vulnerable neighborhoods in Philadelphia with high rates of stroke and adverse outcomes related to heart disease.

We're striving to help more people with chronic spontaneous urticaria—a skin condition marked by hives and distressful itching—return to their daily lives.