Final Wink at the Sun Holidays
Maribor, August 31 – Today in Maribor children gathered for the last time before the beginning of the school year, and the Friends of Youth Association of Maribor entertained them with a Funny Olympics, and Lek, a Sandoz company, hosted the annual Sunshine Games. For the ninth year in a row, the Friends of Youth Association of Slovenia, with its “Wink at the Sun, making holidays possible for all children” charity campaign, is encouraging people to contribute to holidays for children who due to the social marginalized position of their parents would otherwise stay at home, left to their own devices and the streets. Lek has participated in the campaign from the very beginning as a partner and sponsor, and also sponsored the Sunshine Games in Maribor, the last event of the summer for the children before the start of the new school year.
One of the strategic goals of the Friends of Youth Association of Slovenia is to constantly strive to provide equal opportunities for all children to be included in organized leisure activities, including those from poor families, and to constantly encourage all well-intentioned people to eliminate the social exclusion of children. In doing so it implements the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Children, which obliges signatories to realize every child’s right to appropriate enjoyment of leisure time, and to holidays designed to include rest and relaxation as well as improved health. The Friends of Youth Association of Slovenia sends around 30 thousand children on holiday and to outdoor education centers every year. The holidays are organized at various locations in 14 modern holiday homes, which the Friends of Youth Association has at the seaside and in the mountains.
“This year is the fourth year that Lek, a Sandoz company has put on the Sunshine Games, a special day for the children who go onholidays with the help of the Wink at the Sun campaign, where the children can enjoy themselves in a relaxed atmosphere. Today in Maribor the Kolenc family theater entertained the children with pirate skits, and we believe that this day was the final touch to the end of their carefree summer. Lek’s mission is to contribute to health and a better quality of life. We believe that together with the Friends of Youth Association of Slovenia we are fulfilling that mission, as we are providing assistance to the people who need help the most. We visit them during their holidays every year and we can see that we are doing the right thing. The children’s smiling faces say it all,” says member of the Lek Board of Management Marjan Novak.
“The ‘Wink at the Sun – making holidays possible for all children’ campaign has been received exceptionally positively by the citizens of Slovenia as individuals and as representatives of companies, organizations and institutions. With their help and with the excellent support of the media we have collected 1.1 million euros to date and made free holidays possible for around 6000 children,” said Franc Hočevar, President of the Friends of Youth Association of Slovenia.
Lek, a Sandoz company, is one of the pillars of leading world generics company Sandoz. It operates as a global development center for products and technologies, as a global manufacturing center for active pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines, as a competence center for the development of vertically integrated products, as a Sandoz competence center in the field of development and manufacturing of biopharmaceutical products and as a supply center for the markets of CEE, SEE and CIS, sales Slovenia and sales services for Sandoz’s global markets. Lek d.d. employs about 2,820 people and achieved total sales of USD 904 million in 2006. For further information please consult http://www.lek.si
Sandoz, a Division of the Novartis group, is a global leader in the field of generic pharmaceuticals, offering a wide array of high-quality, affordable products that are no longer protected by patents. Sandoz has a portfolio of more than 840 active substances in over 5 000 forms worldwide. Key product groups include antibiotics, treatments for central nervous system disorders, gastrointestinal medicines, cardiovascular treatments and hormone therapies. Sandoz develops, produces and markets these drugs along with pharmaceutical and biotechnological active substances and anti-infectives. In addition to the strong organic growth in recent years, Sandoz has made a series of acquisitions including Lek (Slovenia), Sabex (Canada), Hexal (Germany) and EonLabs (U.S.) and sells its products in more than 110 countries. In 2006, Sandoz employed around 21,000 people worldwide and posted sales of USD 6 billion.
Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) is a world leader in offering medicines to protect health, cure disease and improve well-being. Our goal is to discover, develop and successfully market innovative products to treat patients, ease suffering and enhance the quality of life. Novartis is the only company with leadership positions in both patented and generic pharmaceuticals. We are strengthening our medicine-based portfolio, which is focused on strategic growth platforms in innovation-driven pharmaceuticals, high-quality and low-cost generics and leading self-medication OTC brands. In 2006, the Group’s businesses achieved net sales of USD 37.0 billion and net income of USD 7.2 billion. Approximately USD 5.4 billion was invested in R&D. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis Group companies employ approximately 101,000 people and operate in over 140 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 further information contact:
Katarina Klemenc Dinjaški
Corporate Communications
Lek Pharmaceuticals d.d.
Phone: + 386 1 580 22 43
Fax: + 386 1 580 24 32
communications.lek@sandoz.com
