Sandoz and Novartis do not view the current supply situation in Canada as an opportunity to increase our profits.

Sandoz and Novartis do not view the current supply situation in Canada as an opportunity to increase our profits.

Sandoz and Novartis do not view the current supply situation in Canada as an opportunity to increase our profits. Our objective is to ensure that patients have access to the critical, high-quality medicines they need, and we will honor our pricing for existing hospital contracts, including supply we secure to service these agreements. Patients remain our priority. We are also investing significantly into the enhancement of quality procedures and systems at the Boucherville site for the benefit of all patients treated with our medicines.

Sandoz Canada has been continuing its efforts started in late 2011 to maintain reliable supply of essential medicines following the temporary slow-down in production at its Boucherville, Quebec, site. As part of these efforts, we have identified alternative supply from other reliable third-party suppliers. We recently filed submissions with Health Canada for 15 product families for medically necessary products manufactured at our Boucherville facilities, which together represented about half our demand in 2011, and we will continue seeking additional alternatives.