Be Healthy Celebration Week and Family Days with Petra Majdič and the Helping Paws

  • Caring about health which is the mission of Lek, a Sandoz company, begins with the employees. Therefore, Lek, a Sandoz company, is organizing a Be Healthy Celebration Week for the fifth time in a row at all sites across Slovenia.
  • Be Healthy Celebration Week is the central event of the Novartis Be Healthy initiative aimed at improving the health and well-being of its employees. More than 95 percent of Novartis associates from more than 175 sites in more than 50 countries are participating in the Be Healthy Celebration Week.
  • More than 3,000 Novartis associates in Slovenia are taking part in workshops and lectures on healthy living and different sports activities, learning about how to prepare healthy meals, refreshing their first aid knowledge and checking their vital signs.
28. 9. 2015

Lek, a Sandoz company, is organizing a fifth Be Healthy Celebration Week, a central event of the Novartis Be Healthy initiative aimed at improving the health and well-being of employees. In the week from 28 September to 2 October, more than 3,000 associates from Ljubljana, Mengeš, Lendava and Prevalje sites will work and think in a particularly healthy manner. Petra Majdič along with her team and the Slovenian Society Helping Paws with their therapeutic dogs will make sure to add some extra fun and excitement to the occasion.

The Be Healthy initiative is based on four pillars that help the employees embrace a healthy lifestyle: Move, Choose, Know and Manage. The Be Healthy Celebration Week program encompasses all four pillars. Also this year, Lek, a Sandoz company, prepared an interesting program with many activities.

Petra Majdič will take care of movement by demonstrating to the associates exercises to improve flexibility, balance and strengthen the body. As an introduction to Pink October, breast cancer awareness month, Mojca Senčar and other members of the Slovenian Association for the Fight Against Breast Cancer, Europa Donna, will talk about this disease, how to recognise it early on and how to cope with it.

During the Be Healthy Celebration Week, Lek associates will have the opportunity to refresh their first aid knowledge and learn how to use the automatic external defibrillators (AED), 11 of which are placed in different locations at all Lek’s sites across Slovenia. By measuring key health indicators they will also have a chance to check their health condition – free measurements of body mass index (BMI), cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar and PSA levels for men – will all be available.

During the Be Healthy Celebration Week, the canteens will offer healthy menus, designed and prepared together with nutritionists. Those who are interested in organic food production can also participate in a visit to an organic farm.

This year’s Family Days will add colour to the Be Healthy Celebration Week

»I am very glad to have been a part of the Be Healthy Celebration Week from the very beginning. This is the fifth year in a row that we have been together with the associates of Lek, a Sandoz company. I am convinced that over the years together we have contributed significantly to the understanding of the importance of healthy lifestyles and encouraged many associates to exercise more. This year we will extend our socializing even further and will organise hiking in the mountains on Family Days at all four of Lek’s sites across Slovenia. This is something I am especially looking forward to,« explained Petra Majdič.

About the Novartis Be Healthy initiative

Caring for the health and quality of life of its employees is one of the key Novartis principles and a natural extension of the company purpose “caring and curing”. To that end, Novartis launched the internal initiative Be Healthy in 2011 with the desire to encourage the employees to take an active role in managing their own health. The global Be Healthy initiative is dedicated to all Novartis affiliates’ employees and is being implemented throughout the whole year.

* * *

Lek, a Sandoz company, is one of key pillars of the second-largest generic pharmaceutical company globally. Its role within Sandoz is to act as: a leading global development center for technologically demanding products and technologies; a global manufacturing center for active pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines; a competence center for the development of vertically integrated products; a Sandoz competence center in the field of development and manufacturing of biosimilar products; and, a supply center for the markets of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), South East Europe (SEE) and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and it is responsible for sales on the Slovenian market. For further information please visit http://www.lek.si/en.

Sandoz, a division of Novartis, is a global leader in generic pharmaceuticals, driving sustainable access to high-quality healthcare. Sandoz employs more than 26,000 people worldwide and supplies a broad range of affordable products to patients and customers around the globe.
The Sandoz global portfolio comprises approximately 1,100 molecules, which accounted for 2014 sales of USD 9.6 billion. Sandoz holds the global #1 position in biosimilars as well as in generic anti-infectives, ophthalmics and transplantation medicines. Sandoz also holds leading global positions in key therapeutic areas ranging from generic injectables, dermatology and respiratory to cardiovascular, metabolism, central nervous system, pain and gastrointestinal.
Sandoz develops, produces and markets finished dosage form (FDF) medicines as well as intermediary products including active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and biotechnological substances. Nearly half of the Sandoz portfolio is in differentiated products – medicines that are scientifically more difficult to develop and manufacture than standard generics.
In addition to strong organic growth since consolidating its generics businesses under the Sandoz brand name in 2003, Sandoz has consistently driven growth in selected geographies and differentiated product areas through a series of targeted acquisitions, including Hexal (Germany), EBEWE Pharma (Austria), and Fougera Pharmaceuticals (US).
Sandoz is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Sandoz_global at http://twitter.com/Sandoz_Global.

Novartis provides innovative healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, eye care, cost-saving generic pharmaceuticals, preventive vaccines and over-the-counter products. Novartis is the only global company with leading positions in these areas. In 2014, the Group achieved net sales of USD 58.0 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to approximately USD 9.9 billion (USD 9.6 billion excluding impairment and amortization charges). Novartis Group companies employ approximately 130,000 full-time-equivalent associates. Novartis products are available in more than 180 countries around the world. For more information, please visit www.novartis.com.

* * *

This press release contains statements and conclusions based on projections of Lek’s future business operations. These estimates are derived from the best information currently available. In case these forecasts prove unreliable, the actual results could prove different from those projected.

- end -

For additional information contact:
Katarina Klemenc
Corporate Communications
Lek Pharmaceuticals d. d.
Phone: +386 1 580 22 43
Fax: +386 1 580 24 32
katarina.klemenc@sandoz.com