Thursday, 9 December 2021 On the occasion of its jubilee, Novartis in Slovenia donated funds to universities for new research projects

Novartis in Slovenia celebrates 75 years since the founding of Lek, the first modern pharmaceutical company in Slovenia, 25 years of Novartis and 15 years since the approval of the first biosimilar developed by experts at Sandoz, now a division of Novartis. In honor of the anniversaries, Novartis in Slovenia organized an event in which it commemorated years of knowledge, experience and pioneering work in numerous areas and looked to the future of finding breakthrough solutions for patients. In celebration of its  anniversaries, it supported new research projects of Slovenian universities  with funds in the amount of EUR 75,000 and allocated an additional EUR 25,000  for projects for the prevention of cancer and improving the health of oncology  patients.

The keynote speaker at the event, which took place at the Herman Potočnik Noordung Center of Space Technologies in Vitanje, was Borut Pahor, the President of the Republic of Slovenia. In his address, he emphasized: “What you have today was not created overnight. Your company is so old that it was once called a ‘medicinal products factory’. At the same time, it is so modern that new terms need to be invented for today’s designations. Since the very beginnings of Lek up until today, when you play at the global level, you have been taking care of the environment in which you were born and in which you work.”

At the event honoring the 75th anniversary of Lek, the company contributed EUR 75,000 to the University of Ljubljana, the University of Maribor and the University of Primorska for the development and implementation of new research projects by interdisciplinary teams of Novartis experts and scientists from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maribor and Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies at the University of Primorska. Open innovation of mixed research groups is a common practice of Novartis in Slovenia, and breakthrough solutions arising from cooperation between the academic and economic spheres have been repeatedly awarded the highest recognitions at the national level.

“At Novartis in Slovenia, we are proud of our close ties with Slovenian scientific and academic institutions. Our achievements are the result of cooperation within the Slovenian scientific sphere. We realize that it is not possible to possess all the specialized knowledge within the company; the key to breakthrough innovations lies in collaborating with external experts. That is the only way to effectively fulfill our mission of co-creating medicine to improve and prolong the lives of people around the world. The funds dedicated to Slovenian public universities reflect our desire to successfully and productively cooperate with the Slovenian academic community in the future as well. The flow of knowledge and scientific discoveries between the academic sphere, scientific and research sphere and the economic sphere goes mainly through people, and I believe that history is written when the greatest scientific minds of a particular field work together towards a common goal,” said Robert Ljoljo, President of the Board of Management of Lek and Novartis Country President.

On the occasion of Novartis 25th anniversary, Novartis will donate EUR 25,000 for cancer prevention and to improve the health of oncology patients. Part of the funds will be donated to the Association of Slovenian Cancer Societies for the purchase of a state-of-the-art digital video-colposcope for the identification of pre-cancerous cervical lesions for the Slovenj Gradec General Hospital. This will contribute to improving women's health in Carinthia and the surrounding regions. A part of the funds is earmarked for improving the health of oncology patients from all over Slovenia who come to Ljubljana for treatment.

Source: www.lek.si.

Today, Lek d.d. is also participating in Famnit's Career Day, which enables Famnit students the opportunity to meet potential employers. Famnit's Virtual Career Day is taking place through the online tool BRAZEN, which enables presentation of companies, smart allocation of candidates for interviews, sharing documents (CVs), chat, video interviews on demand. You can read more about the event here.