Novartis CEO says U.S. exit from global health programmes to affect millions

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The American CEO of Swiss drugmaker Novartis on Friday warned that the United States' exit from the World Health Organization and related programmes risks harming millions of people worldwide.

"I don't think there's a lot of logic in stopping these programmes, (some of which were) actually started by Republican administrations, ... given the millions of people who rely on these programmes to get the medicines that they need," CEO Vas Narasimhan said at a news conference after the release of quarterly financial results.

There is a lot of pressure on initiatives that have lost funding, including a U.S. push to fight HIV/AIDS and malaria abroad, he said.

The CEO added the company and its own global commitments, such as work on neglected tropical diseases, were not affected.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, editing by Thomas Seythal)