"Consistent with our efforts to resolve our legacy compliance-related allegations, right now we're working in settlement discussions to resolve the civil suit...on speaker programs and other promotional events that happened between 2002 and 2011," Narasimhan said on a conference call on Thursday.

"We've provisioned approximately $700 million for any potential settlement."

Narasimhan outlined the settlement talks after Novartis raised 2019 sales and profit guidance, on accelerating sales of drugs including Entresto for heart failure and Cosentyx for inflammatory disorders and as its biosimilar copies of rivals' top-selling medicines increase their market share in Europe.