Press Release: Novartis delivers solid sales and -4-

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 "growth," "confidence," "confident," "outlook," "accelerate," "guidance," "launch, " "focus," "progressing," "continue," "continuing," "continued," "continues," "driven," "long-term," "remains," "enhancing," "unlocking," "potential," "driving," "to build," "confidence," "to fuel," "can," ongoing," "progressing," "expect," "expects," "expected," "to provide," "committed," "could," "would," "to leverage," "outlook," "estimated," "pipeline," "priority," "transformative," "will," "integrating," "accelerating," 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 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 the strategic review of Sandoz; or regarding our commitment to net zero emissions across our value chain by 2040; or regarding our new organizational structure. 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 potential that the strategic benefits, synergies or opportunities expected from our new organizational structure may not be realized or may be more difficult or take longer to realize than expected; the impact of a partial or complete failure of the return to normal global healthcare systems, including prescription dynamics; 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 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.

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 news release today at 14:00 Central European time and 8:00 Eastern Time. A simultaneous webcast of the call for investors and other interested parties may be accessed by visiting the Novartis website. A replay will be available after the live webcast by visiting https://www.novartis.com/investors/event-calendar.

Detailed financial results accompanying this press release are included in the condensed interim financial report at the link below. Additional information is provided on Novartis divisions and pipeline of selected compounds in late stage development and a copy of today's earnings call presentation can be found at https://www.novartis.com/investors/event-calendar.

Important dates

July 19, 2022 Second quarter & Half year 2022 results

September 21/22, 2022 Meet Novartis Management (starts at 1800 CET in Basel

on September 21)

October 25, 2022 Third quarter & Nine months 2022 results

(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 35 of the Condensed Interim Financial Report. Unless otherwise noted, all growth rates in this Release refer to same period in prior year.

(2) Please see detailed guidance assumptions on page 6.

(3) A reconciliation of 2021 IFRS results and non-IFRS measures core results and free cash flow to exclude the impacts of the 2021 divestment of our Roche investment can be found on page 40 of the Condensed Interim Financial Report. The free cash flow impact represents the dividend received in Q1 2021 from Roche in relation to the distribution of its 2020 net income.

Please find full media release in English attached and on the following link:

Media release (PDF) http://ml-eu.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/7098c37d-bc65-4c36-bbd0-c482b8677261

Further language versions are available through the following links:

French version is available through the following link:

Communiqué aux médias (PDF) http://ml-eu.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/7f617553-7ffc-49e7-8091-796ef8707c81

German version is available through the following link:

Medienmitteilung (PDF) http://ml-eu.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/96fbaab0-4443-437f-aa6f-de58e49842e9

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 26, 2022 01:00 ET (05:00 GMT)