-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
Net income                               2 059    2 173    -5    -7 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
EPS (USD)                                 0.91     0.96    -5    -6 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
Core net income                          3 413    3 549    -4    -6 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
Core EPS (USD)                            1.52     1.56    -3    -5 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
Cash flows from operating activities     2 130    2 528   -16 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
Free cash flow                           1 597    2 021   -21 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
 
Innovative Medicines                   Q1 2021  Q1 2020   % change 
                                         USD m    USD m   USD    cc 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
Net sales                               10 104    9 755     4     0 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
Operating income                         2 242    2 755   -19   -20 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
    As a % of sales                       22.2     28.2 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
Core operating income                    3 666    3 607     2    -1 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
    As a % of sales                       36.3     37.0 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
 
Sandoz                                 Q1 2021  Q1 2020   % change 
                                         USD m    USD m   USD    cc 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
Net sales                                2 307    2 528    -9   -13 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
Operating income/(loss)                    312      -45    nm    nm 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
    As a % of sales                       13.5     -1.8 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
Core operating income                      445      673   -34   -35 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
    As a % of sales                       19.3     26.6 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
 
Corporate                              Q1 2021  Q1 2020   % change 
                                         USD m    USD m   USD    cc 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
Operating (loss)/income                   -139       34    nm    nm 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
Core operating loss                       -154     -103   -50   -45 
-------------------------------------  -------  -------  ----  ---- 
 
nm = not meaningful 
 
   (1) Constant currencies (cc), core results and free cash flow are 
non-IFRS measures. An explanation of non-IFRS measures can be found on 
page 36 of the Condensed Interim Financial Report. Unless otherwise 
noted, all growth rates in this Release refer to same period in prior 
year. 
 
   Detailed financial results accompanying this press release are included 
in the Condensed Interim Financial Report at the link below: 
 
   https://ml-eu.globenewswire.com/resource/download/e353a60c-1ce5-4e92-9623-04f8f512f66a/ 
https://ml-eu.globenewswire.com/resource/download/e353a60c-1ce5-4e92-9623-04f8f512f66a/ 
 
 
 
 
   Disclaimer 
 
   This press release contains forward-looking statements within the 
meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 
1995, that can generally be identified by words such as "transformative, 
" "on track," "maintaining," "continuing," "progressing," "guidance," 
"commitments," "committed," "proactively manage," "confident," "progress, 
" "continue," "expect," "continues," "to take," "to help," "remain," 
"remains," "to grow," "continues," "to evolve," "to meet," "ongoing," 
"allowing," "launch," "to develop," "to target," "to leverage," "to 
manufacture," "plan," "planned," "to produce," "growing," "growth," "to 
support," "expected," "to be," "assume," "assumes," "would," "to 
progress," "anticipate," "to supplement," "investigational," "taking," 
"will," "estimate," "estimated," "aims," "impact," "submissions," "focus, 
" "launches," "innovation," "potential," "potentially," "pipeline," 
"priority," "outlook," "unforeseen," "forecast," "prevail," "enter," "to 
improve," "manageable disruptions," "to expand," or similar expressions, 
or by express or implied discussions regarding potential new products, 
potential new indications for existing products, potential product 
launches, or regarding potential future revenues from any such products; 
or regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on certain therapeutic 
areas including dermatology, ophthalmology, our breast cancer portfolio, 
some newly launched brands and the Sandoz retail and anti-infectives 
business, and on drug development operations; or regarding potential 
future, pending or announced transactions; regarding potential future 
sales or earnings of the Group or any of its divisions; or by 
discussions of strategy, plans, expectations or intentions; or regarding 
the Group's liquidity or cash flow positions and its ability to meet its 
ongoing financial obligations and operational needs; or regarding our 
collaboration with Molecular Partners to develop, manufacture and 
commercialize potential medicines for the prevention and treatment of 
COVID-19 and our joining of the industry-wide efforts to meet global 
demand for COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics by leveraging our 
manufacturing capacity and capabilities to support the production of the 
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and to manufacture the mRNA and bulk drug 
product for the vaccine candidate CVnCoV from CureVac. Such 
forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs and 
expectations of management 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. You should not place 
undue reliance on these statements. In particular, our expectations 
could be affected by, among other things: liquidity or cash flow 
disruptions affecting our ability to meet our ongoing financial 
obligations and to support our ongoing business activities; the impact 
of the COVID-19 pandemic on enrollment in, initiation and completion of 
our clinical trials in the future, and research and development 
timelines; the impact of a partial or complete failure of the return to 
normal global healthcare systems including prescription dynamics by mid 
2021; global trends toward healthcare cost containment, including 
ongoing government, payer and general public pricing and reimbursement 
pressures and requirements for increased pricing transparency; 
uncertainties regarding potential significant breaches of data security 
or data privacy, or disruptions of our information technology systems; 
regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally, 
including potential regulatory actions or delays with respect to the 
development of the products described in this press release; the 
potential that the strategic benefits, synergies or opportunities 
expected from the transactions described, including the in-licensing of 
tislelizumab from BeiGene, may not be realized or may be more difficult 
or take longer to realize than expected; the uncertainties in the 
research and development of new healthcare products, including clinical 
trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; our 
ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property 
protection, including the ultimate extent of the impact on Novartis of 
the loss of patent protection and exclusivity on key products; safety, 
quality, data integrity, or manufacturing issues; uncertainties involved 
in the development or adoption of potentially transformational 
technologies and business models; uncertainties regarding actual or 
potential legal proceedings, investigations or disputes; our performance 
on environmental, social and governance measures; general political, 
economic and business conditions, including the effects of and efforts 
to mitigate pandemic diseases such as COVID-19; uncertainties regarding 
future global exchange rates; uncertainties regarding future demand for 
our products; 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 as a result of new information, future events 
or otherwise. 
 
   All product names appearing in italics are trademarks owned by or 
licensed to Novartis Group companies. 
 
   Comirnaty(TM) is a registered trademark of BioNTech SE. 
 
   About Novartis 
 
   Novartis is reimagining medicine to improve and extend people's lives. 
As a leading global medicines company, we use innovative science and 
digital technologies to create transformative treatments in areas of 
great medical need. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently 
rank among the world's top companies investing in research and 
development. Novartis products reach nearly 800 million people globally 
and we are finding innovative ways to expand access to our latest 
treatments. About 110,000 people of more than 140 nationalities work at 
Novartis around the world. Find out more at https://www.novartis.com. 
 
   Novartis will conduct a conference call with investors to discuss this 

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