Breathe Free Lanka partners with Novartis in Sri Lanka to provide Ultibro® Breezhaler®

Colombo, 24 August 2019: Breathe Free Lanka Pvt Ltd (“Breathe Free Lanka”), a subsidiary of Cipla Ltd (BSE: 500087; NSE: CIPLA EQ; and hereafter referred to as “Cipla”) announces a partnership with Novartis for the marketing and distribution of Novartis’ Ultibro® Breezhaler®

This partnership will enable Breathe Free Lanka to facilitate easy access to Ultibro® Breezhaler® for patients in Sri Lanka to help them alleviate specific debilitating symptoms of COPD. As part of this agreement, Novartis will be responsible for manufacturing Ultibro® Breezhaler® at its global facilities in line with its commitment to quality, effectiveness and safety.

This development is in line with Cipla’s aim of addressing unmet patient needs in respiratory and other therapy areas in Sri Lanka. The company has a strong record of focusing its efforts on improving healthcare and enhancing access to innovative medicines for improved disease management and better quality of life, especially for patients who currently do not have easy access to critical medicines.

Nishant Saxena, CEO, International Business (Europe & Emerging Markets), Cipla said, “As market leaders with significant presence in the respiratory segment, we look forward to leveraging our marketing and distribution strengths in Sri Lanka to take this product to as many patients as possible in furtherance of our purpose of ‘Caring for Life’.”

Celine Landie, Managing Director, Singapore & Asian Emerging Markets, Novartis said, “Our partnership with Cipla is aligned with the Novartis commitment to address the unmet medical needs of COPD patients and improving their quality of life by providing innovative medicines and devices.”

About Breathe Free Lanka Pvt Ltd:
Breathe Free Lanka Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cipla, was born out of the vision of making quality medicines accessible to patients across Sri Lanka. Over the course of its journey in the country in the last two decades, the company has introduced several novel and important products. Besides focusing on unmet patient needs, Breathe Free Lanka has gone ‘beyond the pill’ to foster disease awareness and lend patient support. ‘Breathefree’ was launched as one such initiative to train professionals in the diagnosis of Asthma and COPD through peak flow meters and spirometry. The company has also been instrumental in patient awareness campaigns such as ‘Save Your Lungs Kandy’, and in conducting skill workshops and research projects to improve Continuous Medical Education (CME) of professionals and technicians by collaborating with the worldrenowned Chest Research Foundation (CRF) in Pune, India.

About Cipla:
Established in 1935, Cipla is a global pharmaceutical company focused on agile and sustainable growth, complex generics, and deepening portfolio in our home markets of India, South Africa, North America, and key regulated and emerging markets. Our strengths in the respiratory, anti-retroviral, urology, cardiology, anti-infective and CNS segments are well-known. Our 47 manufacturing sites around the world produce 50+ dosage forms and 1,500+ products using cutting-edge technology platforms to cater to our 80+ markets. Cipla is ranked 3rd largest in pharma in India (IQVIA MAT June’19), 3rd largest in the pharma private market in South Africa (IQVIA MAT June’19), and is among the most dispensed generic players in the U.S. For over eight decades, making a difference to patients has inspired every aspect of Cipla’s work. Our paradigm-changing offer of a triple anti-retroviral therapy in HIV/AIDS at less than a dollar a day in Africa in 2001 is widely acknowledged as having contributed to bringing inclusiveness, accessibility and affordability to the centre of the HIV movement. A responsible 3 corporate citizen, Cipla’s humanitarian approach to healthcare in pursuit of its purpose of ‘Caring for Life’ and deep-rooted community links wherever it is present make it a partner of choice to global health bodies, peers and all stakeholders. For more, please visit Cipla, or click on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn.

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 more than 750 million people globally and we are finding innovative ways to expand access to our latest treatments. About 105 000 people of more than 140 nationalities work at Novartis around the world. Find out more at www.novartis.com.