Press Release: Novartis announces plan to -2-

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 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 109,000 people of more than 145 nationalities work at

Novartis around the world. Find out more at https://www.novartis.com.

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References

1. "NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms: cytokine release syndrome."

National Cancer Institute,

www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/cytokine-release-syndrome.

Accessed 28 March, 2020.

2. Mehta, Puja, et al. "COVID-19: Consider Cytokine Storm Syndromes

and Immunosuppression." The Lancet, vol. 395, no. 10229, 28 Mar. 2020,

pp. 1033--1034., doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30628-0.

3. Shimabukuro-Vornhagen, Alexander, et al. "Cytokine Release

Syndrome." Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, vol. 6, no. 56, 15 June

2018, doi:10.1186/s40425-018-0343-9.

4. Jakavi(R) (ruxolitinib) tablets: EU Summary of Product

Characteristics. Novartis; Mar 2015.

# # #

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 02, 2020 17:05 ET (21:05 GMT)