Leprosy at Novartis Foundation

Since 1 May 2019 the leprosy work at the Novartis Foundation has been reallocated and integrated into the new Global Health & Corporate Responsibility organisation of Novartis.

For over 30 years, Novartis and the Novartis Foundation have been working with partners like the Global Partnership for Zero Leprosy (GPZL) to eliminate leprosy and continue their long-standing commitment to exploring innovative ways to interrupt the transmission of the disease.

The reorganisation of the work on leprosy has unified the multi-drug therapy supply chain (already hosted by Novartis) and the support to the GPZL.

Further work on the diagnostic test for leprosy will be taken on by the Global Drug Development unit for NTDs.

In 2019, the Foundation will finalise the LPEP initiative and its dissemination, as well as the proof of concept of the AI powered digital tool to accelerate leprosy diagnosis, in partnership with Microsoft and Fiocruz.

“We are extremely grateful for the nice collaboration we had together over the past years and very much look forward to hearing more about the great work the Partnership has set out to achieve in the future,” said Ann Aerts, the Head Novartis Foundation, in an email.