Photographer Captures Patients Around the World Persevering With ITP

“I can’t imagine my life without ITP—it has always been a part of me.” Daniela is a patient from Germany diagnosed with the rare platelet disorder at the age of 14. While she has since grown up, raised a family—and now enjoys traveling, hiking, and building memories with her husband and sons—she has also learned how to become the day-to-day manager of her own health and best handle her condition to live her life to the fullest.

ITP (immune thrombocytopenia) is a rare blood disorder in which there are too few clotting cells, or platelets, in the blood. Patients diagnosed with ITP may …

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Doing the right thing is good business

Can a pharmaceutical company do good and run a profitable business at the same time? Lutz Hegemann believes not only that it is possible, but also that this is exactly what society expects. In fact, reframing the definition of business success around doing the right thing, he says, is both motivating and liberating.

“In the past, what was seen as a distraction from the core business is now being seen as an enhancement of our business,” says Hegemann, Group Head of Corporate Affairs and Global Health at Novartis.

Hegemann began his medical career working with patients with …

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Toward regrowing cartilage

In a recent wildlife documentary, a shark bites off an octopus’s arm. The octopus hides for days and then reappears. Its tentacle has started to grow back.

Unlike octopuses, humans can’t regrow body parts. At least, not yet.

Novartis researchers are inspired by these wild survival artists. They are developing a treatment that has the potential to regrow cartilage in the knees of patients with osteoarthritis. Though not quite equivalent to the regenerative powers of wildlife, it’s an ambitious attempt to regenerate tissue. The approach is part of a wider effort at Novartis to …

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