Fire-Evacuation Drill at Lek Ljubljana Successfully Concluded
- According to Novartis, the internal rules on the readiness of employees in the event of an emergency and bearing in mind the safety of its employees and the wider community, require Lek to annually organise fire or evacuation drills at all its sites across Slovenia. This drill took place in Ljubljana.
- The primary purpose of the drill was to check the emergency preparedness of employees and gain experience for the purpose of updating the rescue and evacuation plans in the event of a potentially unexpected dangerous situation.
- We also wanted to test the communication methods between our internal professional services and external firefighting units, as well as other professional services with which we jointly organised the drill.
An important part of Lek’s more than 70-year history is our responsibility for both patients and the health and safety of our employees, as well as that of the local community and natural environment where we live and work. As part of our responsibility, we also evaluate our competence and operational readiness in the event of a natural or other emergency. Therefore, we hold regular fire and evacuation drills at all our sites across Slovenia to check our readiness and train our employees.
In addition, our Volunteer Fire Brigade Lek (PIGD) celebrated 70 years of operation this year. PIGD cooperates very well with the public fire services with which we jointly organise drills, such as the one today. This time, we prepared the drill together with the Ljubljana Fire Brigade, Sector West. Around 180 participants were involved in the drill, including more than 100 firefighters from 10 volunteer operational fire-fighting units from: the Sector, Ljubljana Fire Brigade; the Unit for management support and Lek PIGD; 28 members of Lek’s first intervention team; and our in-house professional services, which operate in the event of emergencies. Twenty-four emergency vehicles participated in the drill. Firefighters arrived at the scene in four minutes.
The primary purpose of today’s drill was to check the functionality of all parts of Lek’s safety system, and the adequacy of procedures and instructions for such critical events. Furthermore, we wanted to check if the employees have the necessary knowledge to take appropriate action in the event of a real emergency (what to do when the alarm is activated), and to teach them the correct procedures, and thereby ensure maximum safety in case of a real unexpected, dangerous event. Around 500 employees and external service providers conducted the drill in accordance with the prescribed emergency action plan, and evacuated the building in the shortest possible time.
Today’s drill has demonstrated that continuous training with regard to dealing with natural or other disasters is extremely important. Our employees have shown a good level of preparedness and knowledge of specific procedures when emergencies arise. The experience gained will be valuable for the purpose of complementing and updating our plan of action to be conducted in emergency situations.
We would like to thank all of the firefighters and police officers who took part in this successful drill. Their dedication and selfless work is key, not only in drills such as today’s, but even more so in real situations.
Lek, a Sandoz company, is one of the 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 key 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 active ingredients and products; a supply center for the markets of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), South East Europe (SEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and is responsible for marketing and sales of Sandoz products on the Slovenian market. For further information, please visit www.lek.si.
Sandoz is a global leader in generic and biosimilar pharmaceuticals. As a division of the Novartis Group, our purpose is to discover new ways to improve and extend people’s lives. We contribute to society’s ability to support growing healthcare needs by pioneering novel approaches to help people around the world access high-quality medicine. Our portfolio of approximately 1000 molecules, covering all major therapeutic areas, accounted for 2016 sales of USD 10.1 billion. In 2016, our products reached more than 500 million patients and we aspire to reach one billion. Sandoz is headquartered in Holzkirchen, in Germany’s Greater Munich area.
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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, cost-saving generic and biosimilar pharmaceuticals and eye care. Novartis has leading positions globally in each of these areas. In 2016, the Group achieved net sales of USD 48.5 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to approximately USD 9.0 billion. Novartis Group companies employ approximately 118,000 full-time-equivalent associates. Novartis products are sold in approximately 155 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://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.
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
